8 Questions You Must Ask

8 Questions You Must Ask

Welcome to this week's business insight by Shep Hyken. This week's insight is titled:
Know Your Customers
It is very important to know what your customers want, expect and think of you. (This goes for your internal customers as well.)
So how do you get to know your customers? There are a number of ways. You can hold focus groups, mail surveys, call on the
telephone, keep a guest book with a place for comments, etc.
The best way is to directly ask them. Here are a few questions
you may want to ask. They may vary depending on what you do and the type of business you are in.
1. Were you satisfied with your most recent experience with us?
2. Was the service friendly?
3. Were the employees helpful and knowledgeable?
4. Were your expectations met?
5. What products (or services) would you like to see added?
6. What would you suggest we change about the way we do business?
7. Where else do you do business for the same products (or
services)?
8. Can you think of one thing that can make your experience with us even better?

Copyright © – Shep Hyken, Shepard Presentations
Shep Hyken, shep@hyken.com. (www.hyken.com)

via ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom dedicated to Marketing, Advertising and the Creative Process"

Pragmatic Marketing Training

Joe Dager, Business901 completes Pragmatic Marketing training For Effective Product Marketing

Create a Journalist Listening Station

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

Create a Journalist Listening Station

Garnering great press for your business is a powerful marketing strategy and as such, journalists should be on your radar as a target market. Now, instead of abusing them with buy (press releases) messages, how about starting by building some know, like and trust before you ever ask for the order - that’s just good marketing.

The absolute best way to do this is to become a resource to a select group of journalists that report on your industry or businesses in your community. As a resource your primary job is to help them do their job better by sending along industry information, adding to stories they write and commenting on potential resources and angles they might consider - nothing to do with selling your business or story.

If you do this I can almost guarantee you will start getting calls to provide quotes in stories as a reliable source.

Here’show to make the job of journalist relationship building easier.

Use Google Alerts and Google Reader to track every story, blog post and mention your target list of journalists create and scan them in five minutes from one location (or, even have them sent to your email inbox as they happen in real time.)

Thenyou can visit your Reader page, see if anything from one of your journalists pops up and go make a relevant comment on their blog, drop an industry study in mail or suggest a follow-up angle to their story through a hand-written note. This entire process should take just minutes a day and can even be delegated once it’s up and running.

Sometech notes:

GoogleAlerts
• Use quotes around full names to get best results - “bill smith”
• Check the RSS version to have it sent to Google Reader

GoogleReader
• Create a folder in Google Reader just for your PR efforts so that you can store the results of your RSS alerts in one handy place
• Get in the habit of checking and responding at least several times a week.

Whiteboard presentation: T. Boone Pickens on reducing America's dependency on foreign oil

 

Perhaps you've heard by now, but billionaire oil man T. Boone Pickens is on a mission to make sure the USA has an actual energy strategy under the new US president. He has a plan — The Pickens Plan — and he's been talking about it to anyone who will listen (watch this behind-the-scenes clip from The Daily Show), and he's put together a nice little four-minute presentation outlining the plan. Slides were added to this whiteboard overview presentation (below) with good results. The combination of the whiteboard, the actual map, and animated slides worked well and is something that is easily replicated live in a typical conference room or classroom. Some of the best presentations I have seen were by people who moved from using slides and video to whiteboard to using hands-on visuals such as maps or prototypes, etc. and then smoothly back to slides and so on. Now, Pickens does not get into great detail, but he gives you the story of the plan. In a live setting what would follow from this is lots of discussion, elaboration, and good Q & A, but in the first four minutes you got the story...and you want to hear more. That's how leaders communicate.

The slides
The slides were well done and introduced rather smoothly. They look very similar to the kinds of slides Duarte Design creates for Al Gore's presentations. The simple slides did a good job of supporting his narrative. Below are a few of the slides from his talk above.

Pickens gets right to the problem: "...we're importing almost 70%."

Slide in mid-transition. The yearly cost of the dependence = 700 billion/year. Next slide: 750 out of 1000 Americans have cars. In China 44 people out of 1000 have cars.

Pickens: "...we consume 25% of the world's oil..."

"...and have 4% of the people — that's a problem."

Pickens goes analog and brings out a map on poster board. "The United States is the Saudi Arabia of wind power."

Pickens's idea: take natural gas from power generation and use it for transportation, replace it with wind for power generation.

Case in point: Clearwater was a town in decline (slide with subtle Ken Burns effect).

"...but because of wind..."

"...it's a booming community.."

"...this can all be accomplished in ten years if you have the right leadership."
Links
• The Pickens Plan website
• Same whiteboard presentation on YouTube
• "Green T. Boone" talks to Larry King
H/T Brandon Mullins

This is syndicated from Presentation Zen, and written by Garr.

Content is everything

More and more successful businesses are employing something called "content marketing". Content marketing is the practice of creating relevant, valuable and compelling content to customers and prospects (instead of sales information). This type of "un-marketing" is now the last option available to target buyers who are tuning out advertising messages across the board.

In order to attract the attention of buyers, manufacturing marketers must first understand search engines -- where most buyers start their search. Search engines love content, especially valuable and relevant content that generates links from outside, reputable Web sites. Unfortunately, creating valuable and compelling content is not easy to do.

Even though most manufactures may agree with the movement to the Web, most are still using the traditional marketing strategies they have used for decades. There are several reasons for this:

• Most manufacturers are set up to sell products and services, not to provide relevant and valuable information to customers and prospects. Educational newsletters, blogs, white papers and free reports are just a few types of initiatives that are challenging for manufacturers to consistently produce. It's as simple as this: if the information you are sending out to customers doesn't help them do their jobs better or live happier lives, don't send it.
• Most manufacturers have well-worn marketing paths that are easy to follow. Going off the beaten path into uncharted territory is intimidating.
• Most manufacturers may believe that their customers are still not active on the Web.
• Many manufacturers aren't measuring their marketing, so they aren't even sure what is and what is not effective.
• Many manufacturers lack both the right people and the right processes to implement a new kind of marketing.

 

Read this entire post from Industry Week

Joe Pulizzi is founder of Junta42 Match, a free resource for businesses looking for content experts that match their fields. Additional information on content marketing can be found in Pulizzi's book, Get Content. Get Customers. -- How to use content marketing to deliver relevant, valuable, and compelling information that turns prospects into customers.  The book teaches you, step-by-step and through countless case studies, how to create and market your own content to acquire customers. www.getcontentgetcustomers.com.

Social Media, have you heard enough?

Just when you think you have heard enough there is more. I don't think this is going to end and I even feel this may overtake TV as the most popular media source.

Anyway, who is better to talk about Social Media than John Jantsch. At least that is what Microsoft thinks. Download this free e-book. 

 

Technorati Tags: Duct Tape Marketing,Socail Media,Small Business,Microsoft Live,Let's Talk

Marketing EXCELerator

Attention: Small Businesses, Professional Services, Salespeople and Organizations:

Finally! Here's your chance to get the ongoing marketing support you need to take your business to the next level.

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A BRAND NEW program that truly gives you the access, support and accountability you need to effectively market your business on an ongoing and consistent basis. Structured to encompass all the duties of a typical marketing department, this affordable alternative gives you the strategy, the know how, the resources, the one-on-one attention and the “kick in the pants” you need to stay creative and ahead of your competition.

Now, let's review HOW you'll be receiving this business-changing information and training, as well as our personal coaching and hands-on support from leading experts…

1 LIVE Training Calls on Featured Topics: On generally the 1st Wednesday of each month, we will be leading a private training call exclusively for our EXCEL-erator members. Each call will focus on one of the topics outlined earlier. Some calls will feature handouts that will be distributed before the call.

2 Annual Admission to an EXCEL-erator Retreat of Your Choice: All Marketing EXCEL-erator members who join the Annual program in 2008 are guaranteed a complimentary spot at one of two EXCEL-erator retreats scheduled in 2009.About the EXCEL-erator Retreat

3 Special Guest Calls on Featured Small Business Topics: During the year, we'll also have Special Guest Calls to give you access to some of the leading experts out there on small business topics. Past guests have included Michael Gerber from the e-Myth, Guy Kowasaki, author of The Art of Start, and Tim Feriss of the 4 Hour Work Week. This is an amazing opportunity to tap into the minds of some extraordinary resources out there to help you accelerate your business.

4 Online & MP3 Recordings of all Training and Special Guest Calls: We know you're busy and may not have time to make all of our LIVE Marketing EXCEL-erator calls. But you don't have to worry about schedule conflicts, because we record each and every call, and the audio is quickly posted online -- usually within 24 hours.

5 CDs of all Training Calls: Best of all, you'll also receive CDs of the training and special guest calls mailed to you at the end of each month, at no extra charge! You see, we want you to have no excuse not to get your hands on the valuable information we're sharing.

6 Quarterly Private One-On-One Coaching: On announced days each quarter, we will set private coaching timeslots of 30 minutes where you can dial up for a one-on-one mini-consult. Be prepared with specific questions, and we will give you specific answers so you don’t get hung up on various components of your marketing system.

7 Full Access to the Duct Tape Online University: You will have full access to the Duct Tape University. This online resource center is only accessible to subscribers and is a rich source of courses and workbooks on a variety of marketing topics. You can download workbooks and participate in as many courses as you like at no additional cost as long as you are a member of the Marketing EXCEL-erator program.

8 Access to Our Vast Array of Resources: Marketing is an ever-changing field. It’s important to keep your finger on the pulse when it comes to trends, new resources and new schools of thought. But how do you keep up on these changes along with everything else you need to know on a regular basis.

So, are you ready to take your business to the next level?

" Yes! I’m ready to step up to your new "Marketing EXCEL-erator Annual Program" created specifically for those who are ready to learn and apply more advanced, high-income-generating marketing and success strategies to fast-forward their business to the next level!"

Membership includes the following benefits:

• (4) 90-minute Marketing Bootcamps to define the direction to take with my marketing
• 10 training calls per year covering a variety of marketing/business success topics listed above
• Special Guest calls covering even more marketing/business success topics
• 1 complimentary seat to a Marketing EXCEL-erator retreat for 3 full days of workshops, keynotes and networkings with leading marketing experts – for annual members only (2009 retreat: $3,500 - $5000 US)
• Quarterly private coaching sessions (During these sessions, we will book 30 minute calls to help you with your specific questions. First come, first served.)
• Online and MP3 audio recordings of all training calls
• CDs of all training calls mailed to me each month
• An ongoing subscription to the Duct Tape Marketing University during my attendance in the program
• Access to our vast array of Marketing Resources

Technorati Tags: Duct Tape Marketing,Marketing EXCELerator,Marketing System,Manufacturer Marketing,Lean Six Sigma,Lean Marketing

Turn Your Favorite Blogs Into A Personal Magazine

 From Twisted Image

How great would it be to grab all of your favourite Blogs, dump them into one site and have all of that content formatted into your own personal magazine?

Enter: Tabbloid.

Here's how it works:

1. Enter the Blog URLs or feeds that you like.
2. Select when you would want your own personal magazine delivered to you.
3. On schedule, you get emailed a print-ready PDF.

It works, it looks great, it has a very clean and nice design, it's a one-step process and it's completely free.

Tabloid is an HP "hatchling project" (I was unable to find any info on what, exactly, a hatchling project is) and it speaks to three recent issues we've discussed on this Blog.

1. Marketing Needs To Shift From Trick To Treat -

2. The Feeding Frenzy Has Just Begun -

3. The Power Behind A Faith-Based Initiative -

If you find that you don't have enough time to read all of your feeds, check out Tabbloid and see if publishing your own personal magazine and reading them when you're not on a computer (travelling, on the couch, sitting on a park bench, etc...) creates a whole new experience with your content.