Casual Fridays = $5.00

Maybe this one's not much of a marketing technique, but, it can be fun and most importantly, helps others.  If your business operates on a "professional" dress code, chances are that the folks in your office would like to have "casual dress" Fridays.  Try this approach.

• Survey your staff to find out what charitable organization your team might be most passionate about overall.
• Offer up "casual dress" Friday... with a catch.
• To participate in the casual dress code to end each week, they must put up $5.00 that will be donated to the charity each quarter.  The charity can even rotate quarter to quarter.

This will make Fridays fun and bring your team together for a common cause.  Best of all, it's a win/win for all involved.  Employees get their casual Friday.  Charitable organizations around your community are aided financially.  And, if you play the cards right, your company gets some much appreciated pub.

JC

Donate For High Commitment Sales

If your company sells high commitment items this works great for you.  By high commitment items, I mean any product or service that, for the most part, requires some thought or consideration by the buyer.  For instance, a new pair of jeans at the mall = low commitment.  A new car = high commitment.  Are we on the same page?  Good.

Here's what we plan to do here at All For HIM Marketing Solutions.  During the month of February 2009, we will be working to raise contributions for the YMCA Strong Kids Campaign.  Each time a client signs up for our netWORX search engine marketing service or purchases a custom built website from us, we will donate $25 to the Strong Kids Campaign.  Pretty good contribution per sale but hey, it's a high commitment sale, we're willing to sacrifice $25 for a good cause that helps many many families.

• The idea behind this is that this mission might raise some questions and awareness of how the YMCA contributes to their local community (I'll post on this next week).  Other benefits from this effort will hopefully be abundant be three of the things we're hoping for are... 

1. Bringing some of those fence straddlers over to our side.  Most organizations have potential clients who are perfect fits for their product or service, know they need to sign up, but just beat all around the bush when it comes to inking paper and writing a check.  You know they'll sign up some time, question is, will it be before you retire or long after your grand children take over the family business.  Hopefully this will give those procrastinators a reason to commit now rather than later.
2. Letting people know that some businesses care about their community and those organizations that help them and their families.  There's something to be said for giving money to an organization that effects you or someone you know.  For instance, aren't you more likely to buy that overpriced wrapping paper and canned popcorn from the local elementary students, if it's your niece selling it, rather than just some random kid from another city who's going door to door in your neighborhood?  Same principle.
3. Raising lots of dough for an awesome organization.  The biggest part of this mission is that we will hopefully be writing a huge check for the YMCA and the community it supports.  The bigger the check... the more money we made, the more help the YMCA receives, and the more support the YMCA can give to the community.

Once again, this is a win/win for all involved.  By the way, if you need a website or need help getting people to visit your site, we can help.  You can contact All For HIM Marketing Solutions at (405) 761-0266.  Do business now to help the YMCA.

JC

Donate Some Branded Goods

Find an organization and donate some THING they need.  Chances are, that you may be able to brand it with your logo.  Here's just one idea.  Take it and run with it.

• Find a non-profit who uses bottled water and offer to donate a couple of pallets with your logo.  Depending on the organization, you might split the label with half your company info and half the organization's info.
• Go to www.BeOnWater.com and order your water with your custom label and have it delivered to the organization.
• Next thing you know, the organization is passing out your business advertisement all over.

It might look something like this.  The local soccer league or concession stand that raises money for your local school's PTO.  You donate the water, they sell it and the money goes to the organization.  They are passing out your info on the label to every thirsty person at the concession stand.  All those people see a community oriented business that has donated to their local school or soccer club their kids are in.  That's called common ground.  

Once again, It's a win/win for the organization, people getting the water, and your business.  Everybody gets what they need.

There's the idea...  Make it yours.

JC

Donate Some Work

Last week's event at Trichology Salon was a great win/win.

Donate some work or time to charity.  Publicise it in order to invite people to join the cause and take advantage of the "freebie" with request that they donate.

That's what happened with the Trichology Salon example.

Here's the run-down of what happened:

• Stylists donate time & location to shave hair for free
  
• Donations are collected for charity (in this case for Camp Cavett)
• Local radio station agrees to promote event and local news channel covers the story

Here's the result of what happened:

• Local family sees first hand love and support from their friends and community (great thing)
• nearly $1400 raised to support a worthy cause (definitely a good thing)
• 40+ people show up to donate and get heads shaved bringing along family members who otherwise wouldn't have ever realized that Trichology existed. (wives and others not shaving heads and possibly becoming future customers)
• community sees that they have a local business that cares about more than money and wants to genuinely be a blessing to the community.  (hopefully this is one of your business goals... if it's not, it should be)

See.  It's not that hard.  That's just one idea.  How can you make it yours?

More tomorrow

JC

Try Marketing With A Charity.

Ever thought of leverage your business to help others?  Many times you can help a non-profit organization while getting the word out about your company.  If you think through it, you can end up with a complete win / win situation for all involved.  The charity, you, your clients and whomever else might be involved, all benefit.  

What better way to use your business to help others.   

I'll share some ideas on the topic this week.  Do you have any?

JC 

Too Personal, Too Fast.

My brother and I are in the marketing business together and one of his accounts is experiencing an interesting situation between their on-line marketing campaign and their website.

It seems company "A" feels their new on-line marketing campaign is not working due to the receipt of exactly zero new customers from the web.  Sounds logical, right?  Well, the cool thing about Internet marketing is that it's completely track able.  The numbers show that every week, company "A" shows up on thousands of searches and receives numerous new visits to their site. 

In an effort to diffuse the situation, my brother (Rusty) combed through the site with his customer to find the problem.  Rusty had already done this and found the site to be information packed, organized, entertaining, and easy to navigate.  This site was ideal for prompting a customer to contact the business.  However, what Rusty had never done before is actually try to contact the company on-line.  When he tried it this time, a simple form popped up to be filled out.  Pretty standard, right?  Nope.  One of the required fields asked for his social security number.  What?  I haven't even decided I want to buy from you.  I'm trying to find out your price.  And, you want my social security number?  While I'm at it, here's my debit card number and pin access code.

Many people may read this and think "what an idiot" but, do you try to get too much commitment too soon from your potential clients.  Do you go to the cell phone store and fill out the waiting list form?  Most include an email field.  To which I think, I don't want your emails every week.  I'm interested in buying a phone today, isn't that enough.  Many times when trying to view things such as pricing or when trying to contact a business on-line you will be asked to create a user name and password.  This is to try and create a sense of "buy-in" or "commitment".  However, in your own business, you might want to make sure you're not getting the steps out of order.  

Company "A" was asking it's customers for their hand in marriage before they'd even been on a first date.  Where are you getting too personal, too fast?

JC

What If Business Grows Too Fast?!

I visited with a business owner yesterday that raised a concern I hear many times.  "What if my new Internet advertising campaign brings in more orders than I can fill?"  My answer... Hopefully it will.  After all, that's the goal, isn't it?  Here are some thoughts I have on this subject.

• If you only are willing to try to reach the amount of business that you can currently handle... How do you expect to grow.  
• Advertise and put a "now hiring" sign out on the same day.
• If you can't fill the orders, politely explain the high demand (rather than low production ability) to your customers and aide them (not just refer them) in finding what they need somewhere else.  They will appreciate it and if you explain that your production backup is the exception rather than the rule, they'll appreciate your effort and still come to you first next time or when referring a friend.  

I think most of the time this statement though is an excuse for a statement like these two.

1. I'm scarred and don't trust my ability as a leader or business owner to handle any more than I have.  I'm not quite sure I'm committed to my employees and the future of this company as it is.
2. I don't understand the new world of commerce and marketing that the new digital age has brought us into.  Since this is the case, I choose to crawl in a corner and boycott hoping the rest of the industrialized world will miss me and revert back to the early 1990's.

Your thoughts?

JC

Head Shaving Stats & Pics

Thanks to all of you who helped make this a special night for Caleb.

WOW!  Over 40 heads got shaved last night at the Trichology Salon to raise over $1300 for Camp Cavett in honor of Caleb Pape and his courageous battle.  I'll keep updating this thread with stats as donations keep coming in.  

If you'd still like to show your support, you can email me jc@AFHmarketing.com and I will work with you to make arrangements for your donation.  

You may also post your bald head pic in the comments of this thread.  Keep checking regularly because Caleb's parents will be posing a ton of pics they took last night at the event.

Caleb Pape - 3

Check out my post from Friday to get details on the fundraiser that Caleb Pape is putting together.  I hope to see you there tonight.  If you can't make it, take a picture of your new aerodynamic cut and post it to the Caleb Cut Pics blog I'll put up this evening.

JC

Fat Stats ( Week 3 )

Well, no progress this week.  I weighed in at 209 this morning which is the same as last Monday.  I made progress earlier in the week then slacked off the second half of the week.  This puts me behind with some catching up to do.

JC

Caleb Pape - 2 ( The Details )

Ok folks, here are the details for the day of buzz cuts and fundraising to support Caleb Pape as he hopes to raise money to support Camp Cavett as he battles his giant. 

          Monday, January 19th  5pm-7pm

          Trichology Salon

          14101 N. May Ave.  Suite 110

          OKC Ok  73134

• Come stay the whole time or just swing by to say hello.
• Get your "buzz on" with Caleb or donate what you can.
• If you can't make it...  email me or post a pic of your new aerodynamic look in the comments of this blog.

I truly believe this can be an amazing experience as Caleb sees people coming together to bless others through his illness.  Losing his hair is a BIG deal for Caleb but he's feels it's worth it to support Camp Cavett.

I urge everyone to raise as much money as you can and bring it by to donate.  I know you don't want to be "that guy" trying to get everyone at work to "pitch in" for everything you come across.  So, if you are "that guy" then don't ask people.  However, if you can't remember the last time you raised money or support for a worthy cause other than your own bank account....  If that's you, ask everyone you know.  

I'd love for Caleb to be just blown away by the support he receives in raising money for the charity he chose.

If you have any questions reply to my post or email me at jc@AFHmarketing.com  .

JC

Refer to Seth

I have to turn todays blog entry over to Seth Godin.  Click his name to read his post for today.  It made the wheels in my mind get cranking.

Have a great weekend.  See ya Monday!

JC

Pepper is HOT!

My wife (Pepper) and I each will turn 30 by the end of this month.  Though I'm not devastated to realize that I'm nearly halfway to the average life expectancy for males in the USA, I have done some reflecting lately.

Today I was looking at Pepper and began to think about when we met at the ripe old age of 16.  Boy did I think she was H-O-T....HOT!  I thought about our wedding day and how I thought she was the most beautiful thing on earth.  I then walked into our bedroom where there hangs a picture of us not long after being married (maybe 19-20 yrs old).  Wow did I think she was beautiful then.  After looking at my wife of over 11 years again, I realized I was way off base.  What was I thinking?  At all those times in our lives she was pretty, cute, sweet.  She's just a few days from her 30th birthday and has now become Smokin' HOT.  

My how your perceptions change over time.  14 years ago when we first met, I thought I had it made and that she was as beautiful as she would ever be.  Now, I can't wait to see her at 40.  If she keeps getting hotter at this pace, I might have to wear a welders mask to look at her so she won't burn my eyes.

Pepper, I love you more than anything... even more than yesterday.  

875883

JC

Referrals or Advertising?

Too many times I've visited with business owners who say they don't need to advertise because they do all of their business through word of mouth.  Most of the time, these businesses are not growing and in many cases, slowly failing.  Granted, there are some fields that are very fraternal in which the "good ole boy" system is the only way to pick up clients.  Those types of businesses however, are sparse at best.  

If you could load up on new clients, purely from referrals, most people would have a close friend or family member who's a millionaire from a pyramid business.  That's how they work, isn't it?

The truth is... Although referrals may be the best customers to deal with, it's not the best way to find new customers.  Advertising is.

JC

"I can't afford to advertise" WHAT?!

I often hear business leaders say they can't afford to advertise, "right now".  I just want to say "WHAT?  WHY? Are you an idiot?"  Most of the their pitiful answer to why, is... "business is just slow right now".  O.K.   So these people must think the Customer Fairy is going to bring in some new clients tomorrow.  The truth is, when business is slow, you can't afford not to advertise right now.

1. If you're not advertising and business is slow, change it.  Start Advertising.  
2. If you are advertising and not seeing it bring in business, change it.  Try different advertising media, but don't just stop advertising.  
3. If you are advertising and it's bringing in a positive number of dollars vs. your investment, change it.  Keep what you have and buy more of it.  There should be no budget or spending limit on well-spent advertising dollars.  IT MAKES MORE THAN IT COSTS (positive ROI).

If you want to change the way your business is going, you've got to do just that.... CHANGE.  

Advertising is not a luxury.  It's a necessity!  If you're only buying it to "see yourself" all over town and boost your ego, it's a waste.  Organizations shouldn't buy advertising when they "make it".  Organizations should buy advertising so they will "make it".  

What are you and your organization doing today so that more people will find you tomorrow? 

If you don't advertise or thinking of cutting your advertising, please pay attention to this next statement.

If you're doing the same thing today that you did yesterday, you'll have even less business tomorrow than you do today.

Thoughts?

JC

Caleb Pape 1

Anybody up for getting their hair cut?  I'm currently working with the family of Caleb Pape as well as the Trichology Salon to put together a fund raiser for Camp Cavett.

Caleb is currently battling tumors since August of 2007.  During this time, he's battled a tumor at the base of his skull, leg, and even rib.  Caleb's entire family are what I would call the prototype of Christ loving families.  His father (Randy) is one of the most Spirit filled men I've ever met.  He leads his 3 sons and 1 daughter in examples of how to actively worship each day in the way you live.  Kerri (Caleb's mom) is an awesome woman.  She's had a lot placed on her shoulders and her heart.  Even spending several months caring for all 4 kids on her own during this rough season for her family, while Randy was stationed over seas with the US Air Force.  Caleb is a Champion and will overcome this trial he's facing.  He wishes though to use this to help and reach others through this.  

Caleb will be going with the aero dynamic haircut provided by a pair of clippers next week and would like some of you to come along as well.  Trichology Salon will cut Caleb's hair as well as others wishing to support the cause.  All that is asked is that you donate the cost of the haircut to Camp Cavett.  If you don't wish to sport the new doo (I will be), you can easily stop by and donate to the cause.  

We are still working out some details but will have all of them soon.  Very soon.  This will probably take place early next week so keep checking Awaken for details in the next couple of days.

JC

Fat Stats (Week 2)

Well, I hit my mark again this week.... barely.  

By Sunday I had only lost one pound of my 2 pounds per week goal.  I was extra good on Sunday and by the Monday morning weekly weigh-in, I was down to 209lbs. from 211lbs.  

This is obviously doable but the pounds aren't exactly "melting away".  Last week I woke up to run at 5am on two different days and did some swimming one morning while doing some eliptycal work for a fifth workout of the week.  This week, my goal is six workouts.  Two will include swimming only.  Two will include only a run or elyptical.  The other two will include a run and weight lifting immediately to follow.  I'll also continue to work on curbing my eating habits as I go along.That's the hardest part for me.  I have the will power of a crack addict.

JC

Plan of Action vs. Goal

For many people, early January is always a time of goal setting. For many of those same people, by early February, those goals are set aside only to be tried and failed the next year. And, so the cycle continues.

I'd argue that the main reason people don't accomplish their goals is because of focusing too much on the goal itself, rather than the action plan to reach that goal. They simply focus on their goal which seems far away and with "plenty of time" to achieve until one day, the deadline is upon them and they feel like a 5 year old about to clean their bedroom. The goal seems unreachable and they don't know where to start.

Example: Steve may set the goal of getting up at 5:30am each morning to spend thirty minutes in quiet prayer with God. However, if Steve doesn't make a plan of action which might include setting the alarm clock for 5:20am (so he can hit the snooze button once), he will likely oversleep thus not reaching his goal. When this happens, people begin to focus on the goal and how they will "cram" the end result into their schedule. At that point, they may be "working in" thirty minutes of prayer, but, how likely is that thirty minutes to focus on and honor God?

Another example: Company ABC sets a first quarter sales goal of $500,000. Company ABC should then figure how many sales that breaks down to, the number of sales per sales rep that equals, and how many sales per week each rep would have to make to reach individual goals that the company goal would break down to. Furthermore, to keep the sales rep from focusing on that large individual goal, show them how many phone calls per day to make to sales leads to average one sale. Show them how many potential customers to drive out and personally meet to average one sale. On a company level, how many fliers must you mail to average one generated lead? Do it. How many leads will $5,000 in Internet marketing bring your company? Buy it.

Do your task list plan of action and pre-set only periodical times to compare your actual year-to-date numbers to your pacing for your goal. Other than those times DON'T FOCUS ON THE GOAL! Focus on the things to do each day. If you take care of those things, the goals will happen.

JC

Crazy Love

I've recently finished a great book entitled Crazy Love, written by Francis Chan.  This book really was used to open my eyes about the crazy kind of love that God has for us.  He loves me regardless of how imperfect and just plain messed up I am.  That's Crazy.

The thing that challenged me most through this book though was a comment about being an obvious Christ follower.  If you weren't a Christ follower, would your life look much different?  In other words, does the way you live your life constitute total trust, worship, belief, and leaning on God?  Or, are you more of just a "nice guy" who goes to church and prays before meals?  

If the first statement is true, your life should look completely different and stand out from those who don't know Christ.  In the second example, your life likely more closely resembles those around you not knowing HIM than it does the crazy apostles who were more passionate about telling the news of Jesus than any other thing around them.  They acted that way because they were filled with God's crazy love.  Really, is there any other reasonable response to a crazy kind of love like that?

JC

Incentive For Early Commitment

If you haven't already read my blog from yesterday morning entitled  Sale Ends Tomorrow... Yeah, Right!  I'd suggest doing so now to fully understand the basis of today's idea.

----------

I left the health store with the mindset of proving to the sales person just how long I could wait before making a purchase if in fact I ever did do business with her company.  I began to feel bad for my daughters as we walked through the mall.  All of this walking up and down the isles from store to store was setting their legs on fire.  Actually that may have been the neatly folded cash from grandma that was burning a hole through their pocket.  I bit the bullet. Made the ultimate sacrifice.  I set my kids free in the Disney Store to blow their money.  

My oldest daughter, Halee stood gazing with a stuffed animal and Hannah Montana karaoke gear in hand.  What caught her eye?  There was a huge display of newly distributed High School Musical 3 merchandise.  This time, a much more trained (in product knowledge as well as knowledge of customer demographic) sales person approached.  The sales rep immediately she began to connect with the emotions and desire that she knew Halee was battling.  

What do I get?  I can't get it all... so, what?

The sales rep must have heard my wife and I encouraging her to wait until she knew exactly what she wanted before making a purchase.  "Don't just get something, just to blow the money" my wife would tell her.  If you'll remember my story from yesterday, that's what customers have been trained to do by sales organizations.

This time, the sales rep had a much better option.  "If you pre-order the new High School Musical DVD, you get a discount on any other HSM item" she said.  WOW!  Suddenly it didn't matter which she picked.  It would be at a discount.  All Halee needed to do was go ahead and pay for the DVD she wanted to get anyway.  A bonus for not waiting.  Decision made!  Because Disney chose to reward customers for buying early rather than holding off until the next hit came out to give an incentive for purchasing this HSM DVD, their sales numbers will likely be way ahead of pace before the first copies ship to the stores.

What if a car dealership did this?  What if you visit a car dealership next August, only to find the 2009 model cars at regular price but the chance to pre-order a brand new 2010 model and get a $5,000 rebate?  Suddenly, the way people buy cars would change.  Granted, that may mean the manufacturers have to take a huge hit on the 2009 models, but it's really them who caused this whole fiasco anyway.  Isn't it.  One move like the incentive to pre-buy and over night car dealerships would regain the upper hand in the negotiating room.  Something they lost years ago.

What are the things you can do to reward your customers for committing early?  Find a good way and you'll save yourself a ton of stress at the end of your sales cycle.

JC

Fat Stats (Week1)

I reached my week 1 goal... barely.  I'm down from 213 to 211.  My goal is 2 pounds per week until I hit 175.  Though I hit this goal, I'm pretty disappointed with myself.  This goal was meant to be an average.  I assumed I'd lose many more for the first few weeks and the weight loss would be harder to come by as I thinned out.  I guess that is only the case if you take the task seriously.  I do have to admit.  Although I'm very serious about the goal and how I'll reach it, I was slow to take action steps other than eating a couple of pieces of fruit this week.  Tomorrow, however, I'll be meeting a group at 5am for a good cold run.  I'm on a mission and intend on accomplishing it.

JC

Sale Ends Tomorrow... Yeah, Right!

I was in a local health store about a week ago, and while visiting with the sales person, it became very clear that she did not know the differences in the two products she was showing me (that's a problem to discuss another time).  Set on gathering more information before making my decision, I told her I'd go home and search on-line before making a purchase.  This is when my poorly trained sales rep exclaimed "well you need to hurry back today because our sale will end tomorrow".  My reply was simple... "oh, I'll decide right away then", and with that, my decision was made.  I would probably buy on line, and if I did return to that store, it would be next week.  I'm no dummy, this is the last week of December and everyone has January sales, right?

Here's my point.  I didn't believe this sales person.  She had, to my knowledge, not been untruthful in the entire eight minutes of my life that I knew her, so, why did I assume she was lying?  Answer:  She's a sales person.  

Most businesses who use a sales force to market, gain a reputation for being untruthful mainly because of one "fib".  The one your sales team uses to create a sense of urgency.  Who buys a new car at the end of June because the rebates will change at the end of the month?  Answer: Nobody, the rebates get even better closer to fall.  For instance, there's a yellow page directory publisher who offers "early decision incentives (EDI)" for advertisers who sign up early.  Most of the time they include a huge discount or bonus ads.  The idea behind it its clear.  Sales into the directory come easy at the end of the sales cycle because of the rush to not be "left out" before the publishing deadline.  Nobody wants to be left out for an entire year.  However, when the sales cycle begins, all those businesses want to wait.  The book is a year from publishing.  Offering those "early decision incentives" is a great way to get people to act now.  

Great in theory, that is.

Here's where the system fails.  In past years, the EDI  did not end.  Instead, it was available through the entire sales cycle.  When customers realized this, they lost that sense of urgency to act early and could take their time.  When that happens, management cringes because sales numbers look bleak until the end of a sales cycle and pacing of productivity is way off.  To aide in quick sales during their panic, management will likely offer discounts trumping those EDI offered to loyal early acting customers.  This further perpetuates the cycle of waiting until the last minute and crunched (often moved back) deadlines.  But worse of all, slices a hole in trust your sales team is trying to build with clients.  Not to mention, trust your team has in management.  No honest sales rep wants to lie to their customer by selling at one price today, what they could get at a better price tomorrow.  Especially when it comes at the price of not being "in the know" of their own company's deadlines.  Customers will challenge these deadlines often, and most of those times, the customer will be correct.

Ponder this cycle and how it applies to what you're doing now.  Come back tomorrow to hear the solution to this cycle.  Hint:  I found it at the Disney Store.  It had something to do with what my 8 year old daughter wanted to spend her Christmas money from grandma on.

Feedback?  Guesses?

JC

"G" ?

If you watched any of the traditional college football classics on New Year's Day, you saw the commercial.  You probably went away asking... "What the heck does G mean?".   You're not the only one.  This topic was the #2 searched topic on Google yesterday.  After recognizing some of the faces passing across the screen, I had a hunch.  Turns out, my hunch was correct.  This was the launch of a much anticipated new marketing campaign by Gatorade.  

Genius?  I think so.  Not many companies have the cash flow to spend of this type of creative marketing.  For most companies, they need each dollar to clearly state who they are and what they do.  However, for a company that can afford to run the ad often enough to flood an area or demographic for a concentrated enough time frame, this is a brilliant attack.  

Quaker Oats (who owns Gatorade) and PepsiCo. (who announced today, intent to purchase Quaker Oats) will probably always bookmark January 1st, 2009 as the day that more people searched for them, than nearly any other thing.  What can you do to entice potential customers to search for you rather than you searching for them?  Be creative.  With enough creativity you too can make this happen on at least some level.  Without spending millions of dollars in one day.

JC

Happy New Year

Relax.  Enjoy the day off.  Play the hangman game above.   Forward Awaken to your friends so they can play too.  Maybe fluff your vocabulary for the new year.  I know I could use it.

JC