In the United States we  celebrate Independence day this weekend. Happy Independence day to all!  Make this weekend a wonderful time of celebration of the freedom of not only thought but of action too!  Even with all the challenges our country faces today, freedom is the catalyst for greatness and I wish every human on the planet had freedom.

As I prepare to celebrate independence day with softball,  water fights,  BBQ, root beer floats and fireworks, I think about tapping the spirit of independence in marketing, taking hold of your destiny.

My message today is about independence in your marketing and sales. The world of internet marketing has changed and no longer can you build a website, execute  some nice Search Engine Marketing /Key word  (SEM) work and all the sudden the world comes to you, throwing their money at you.  I don’t know if many readers remember the old IBM commercial that ran in the early days of the internet where a team of co-workers is huddled around a PC monitor to look at a website and they kick it off live and the order counter just starts spinning?  The workers are excited at first as the numbers trickle in and then begin to fret at the order counter starts spinning out of control.  Great commercial, but not reality, not then, and certainly not now.

The reality of today is that your business must still build a great internet presence, must still have strong SEM but you better also be list building, targeting and then hunting down your prospects through automated drip marketing and sophisticated Customer Relationship Marketing. There are over  3 billion people using the internet . Truth be told, there is a customer for everyone and every product. Just doing some SEM is a passive aggressive approach and is not enough.  You better be hunting in the social media streams to find your prospects.

Take control of your destiny and create independence like the patriots did in America 233 years ago by seeking out change, finding your audience, connecting  with them and inviting them into a dialog about becoming your customer for life.  Build an Attention Connection. The founding fathers of the nation would not have broken free if they had taken a passive approach.

Don’t be a pacifist waiting for customers to find you with a bit of SEM, take action and hunt them down.

To get attention, you must pay attention. Happy Marketing Independence day!

Follow up failure could be the number one problem many businesses face because it’s the root of sales success. Without sales, you don’t have a business, you have a hobby or a dream that does not monetize.

The local franchise of American Pizza Company learned a hard lesson; I call this follow up failure, one and done.

In less than 9 months the local American Pizza Company went in and out of business in Westminster, Colorado.  Sad part is, I could have helped keep them in business had they just followed up with me. Let me explain.

I live 7 blocks from their failed store. As the crow flies, I am only a few hundred yards away but open space parks separate my neighborhood from the small retail plaza they used to occupy.  Seven short blocks away and they could not even find me, a potential great customer.  I am a great customer for a pizza store because I have 5 children ages 6-14 and pizza is a staple in our home. Ask my two boys what they want to eat, 24/7 and pizza will be one of the top 3 choices.

In the nine months the American Pizza Company was in business, I heard from them once, a mailed flyer menu. I bought from them once, mostly out of curiosity, yet drove PAST their store to go another mile to purchase pizza no less than 18 times and purchased no less than 54 pizzas. Now I am not going to say my 54 plus pizzas would have kept the American Pizza Company in business but I would have been a good repeat customer.

The Pizza chain that did get most of our pizza business in that same nine months was Papa Murphys’ Take & Bake Pizza.  Let’s contrast the difference between the two stores Attention Connection with me the customer.

1.       Papa Murphy’s sends  me a coupon every week in the newspaper. Easy to stay top of mind when there is a coupon inviting me to save money each week.  American Pizza sent me one communication, a menu flyer.

2.       Papa Murphy sends me a email coupon once a week. They have my email and communicate with me once a week.  American Pizza, no email, only one flyer in nine months

3.       Papa Murphy’s has a loyalty program, after 12 pizzas,  I get a free one. American Pizza – no loyalty program.

4.       Papa Murphy sends me home with a coupon each week with each pizza.  When I buy three pizzas, I get three coupons. American Pizza… no coupon. I think you are starting to see the trend here.

The crazy thing about this situation is I drove PAST the American Pizza location to get to Papa Murphy’s location. ( I actually drive past 3 other pizza chains, all who are thriving because they do a reasonable job of marketing their product.)

The lesson here is about follow up. One franchise chooses to stay in touch with me more than 50 times a year and they get my business when their closer competitor ignored me and chose not to be connected. One is in business, one shuttered their door in just nine months.

To maintain customers for life, you must implement systems to attain and maintain connection with clients.  My firm use tools like Infusionsoft to help organizations stay in touch, stay connected. If you are not connected to your clients, connect with us and we can help.

Want 30% response rates for a marketing piece? Forget paper coupons, ask me about text coupons!

To get attention, you must pay attention.  Attention Connection. Be connected, follow up and thrive.

I spend 100% of my professional time working with clients to help them automate their sales and marketing processes. Yesterday I had an “ah ha” moment that I have to admit is an oversight, especially when you consider workflow automation has been a part of my life since 1992.

The internal customer.

For small and medium sized businesses our firm loves Infusionsoft, a great CRM/Sales Automation/Marketing Automation tool.  My firm and our consultants get myopically focused on the sales and marketing processes and over look automating processes for the internal customer.

A great example of this would be to use the workflow automation tools to manage any process in the company which requires reminders, follow up, accountability and automated sign off.

Example #1 – Benefits enrollment – Each year most of us are required to re-enroll in our employer’s benefits programs. Without automation, this requires the HR representative to send out countless emails, chase you down at your desk all to make sure you get enrolled.

Why not automate these “internal customers” in a workflow follow up sequence to enroll them? Let the software chase the employees down! Set up an enrollment page, follow up sequences, then set it and forget it.

Example #2 – Training Certifications – Most all of companies require some sort of training for their employees. Again, a manager or HR person ends up being some sort of hunter tracking down people, partners, franchisee partners to enroll and complete these vital processes. Again, this can be tackled with a set of web forms and follow up sequences.

Reminds me of this great clip from a few years back, “Terry Tate the Office Linebacker”. This is a must view, spend a few minutes, you wont regret it, especially if you have a sense of humor.

Maybe you need a Terry Tate office linebacker in your firm but my guess is you will be better off letting the software increase your productivity.

You can leverage your CRM tools to automate your communications and processes for your internal customers.

An Attention Connection™ has no boundaries and for small business, workflow automation can be a life saver on so many fronts.

Stay connected.

Connect with you later.

When it comes to Internet and social media marketing, I am always reminded of an old joke about two guys out hunting grizzly bears.  The joke goes like this:

There were two hunters in Alaska out hunting grizzly bears. The first hunter was a sage old hunter who was a professional hunting guide and had seen his share of bear hunts. Along with him was a second hunter, a very inexperienced hunter who was on his first hunt with the guide.

After a few hours out in the brush, the inexperienced hunter kept hearing rustling noises and began to fear that he had probably put himself in harms way by hunting bears. The rustling grew louder and finally the fear got the best of him and he asked the sage old guide “don’t you ever worry about being able to out run the grizzly?”

The guide looked at his fear filled companion and in a dead pan voice replied, “nah, I don’t ever worry about out running the grizzly, I just have to outrun you!”

Can you outrun your competition when it comes to Internet and Social media marketing?

It’s just as important to know what your competition is doing as to what you are doing. Your organization not only needs to pay attention to your own social media, SEO and PPC but your closest competitors.

There are great tools available today to monitor brand and social buzz, along with compare your keywords, tags and SEO with with the keywords of those you compete with.

I highly recommend competitive analysis as a vital first step in social media and your internet presence.

Here is another great video that is worth the 45 seconds. Can you out do the competition?

Funny…

Stay connected.

Most everyone walking the planet over 16 years old has seen the popular late night talk shows.  In nearly every country, people flock to these late night shows. The format is the same and very popular. The shows start with a monologue from the host, normally laced with social commentary laced with humor and wit. After the opening monologue, the show flips to a interview format where a dialogue takes place between the host and guests.

Marketing types should learn from this successful format now that internet and mobile communications now facilitate dialogue better than ever.

The days of monologue marketing, media and communication are gone. We see evidence of this with the global struggle of the newspaper industry and various medias that used to primarily were monologue delivery systems. The papers and media created the content, controlled it’s distribution and basically had control.  There was no two way communication, it was all monologue.

Democratization of content and influence is here. Anyone person or organization can create a groundswell using social media. Now that mobile communications have become affordable for the masses and social media platforms are all the rage, you must provide your prospects access to you in formats that support a dialogue.

Questions to ask your organization:

1. Does your marketing message invite people to be taught, not told?
2. Do you deliver the education to your customers need to buy from you in a manner which can be consumed and not feel like a sales pitch? Does your communication delivery include automated drip systems?
3. Does your website invite communication, not just a a digital brochure? Have you integrated video and chat into your online presence?
4. Are you actively using social media? If so, how effectively?
5. Are you monitoring your brand in social media and responding to what is being said?
6. Do customers, partners and prospects have access to your firm 24/7 in a self service format? Remember, customers buy when they are ready to buy and not when you are ready to sell.

If you are truly going to gain and maintain an Attention Connection with your desired stake holders, you must be relevant and connected. You can not be a stand up talk show host that just delivers a  monologue. You must seek to have dialogue.

What do you think? How do you grade your organization in the delivery and sustaining in a dialogue?

As always, connect with you later.

Yesterday I wrote about Bryan Bennett of DNA Services of America and his success of using Twitter as a way of extending his marketing reach.

Overnight I thought maybe another example of Twitter success would be in order as so many people are confused about what Twitter really is and why it’s so valuable as a weapon.

So here is my second “grizzly in the stream” Twitter success story… My own company.

Our firm is a trusted adviser for comprehensive technical marketing systems we call Attention Connection Systems and at the base of what we do is usually a CRM system. (Most of my tweets on twitter are about CRM). We are partners with many technology companies and help customers connect utilizing the tools.  One of the tools we love is a solution called Infusionsoft. You must check them out!

I have  posted tweets about Infusionsoft  because it’s so powerful and it’s too good to be kept a secret.  In the past month our firm has had three new clients result from tweets on Twitter. In addition to these new clients,  I have helped provide input to another firm in Boston (headed up by Garth Rose) who recently decided to join the ranks of Infusionsoft and signed up after connecting with me on Twitter. Garth has even started a local Infusionsoft user group like the one we have here in Colorado.

Not a bad month  and truly what Twitter is all about.

You better jump in the stream.  If you have not seen this video, invest the 45 seconds! You will be glad you did.  Fishing for salmon… check it out.

Too funny!

My take home message is this: Dive in,  don’t just wade in ! Beat the competition to the fish!

Better put on my slickers!

Connect with you later.

Most everyone who has a TV has seen video showing grizzly bears fishing for salmon in the streams of Alaska and the wild.

You can be like a grizzly catching salmon with social media. I just witnessed one.

Bryan Bennett is a Regional Developer and franchise owner for DNA Services of America. As a client of mine, I have been pushing their firm to social media as part of extending their reach on the Internet.

Bryan is a hunter and has even hunted bears in Alaska but this past week, he began hunting even bigger trophy animals; customers, by extending his marketing reach with Twitter.

Bryan jumped right into the stream of Twitter and started fishing. He began  building his network of followers and people he follows . Thursday of this  past week he was Tweeting about the franchise opportunities at DNA Services of America. Right after he posted his tweet, a person who was following Bryan contacted him about franchise opportunities in southern California.

Fish on!

Thousands of years ago the grizzly bears learned that to catch the salmon, they had to get into the stream with the fish. It’s hard to catch a fish standing on the shoreline. Watch this grizzly bear standing in the stream catching the fish right out of mid air. Amazing, the fish had no chance.

Learn from the grizzly bear and Bryan, get into the streams of socail media and catch the fish.  Yes, you might get wet, yes it might be uncomfortalble at first, but that is where the fish are swimming now!

Connect with you later, it’s time for me to get wet myself.

Social media in an interesting paradox. With the global reach of the internet and the ability to “headline read” through streams, social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and the other 250,000 plus platform sites, one can stay connected yet be a observer at the same time.

I am now connected to thousands of people and if I choose, I can reach out and digitally connect with any of them at my disposal. The connection is global, no longer I am restricted to an isolated world of one local community.

Powerful tools and truly astonishing if you think the democratization of media, influence, advertising and opinion.

Like anything else in this life, you will only get out of social media what you put into it. Like a plant, if your network is not watered and nourished, it will shrivel up and die.

Those who want to leverage the power of the network, need to water their social gardens on a regular basis.

I was with a small business owner yesterday and he clearly has not become educated on the power of social media yet but is smart enough to jump in and start. He told me in the meeting that someone asked him why his company was on Twitter, Facebook and MySpace and he told them frankly, ” I am not sure yet, but these are the current platforms of communication and I better stay connected”.

Stay connected. Water your network each day.

As always, connect with you later.

Until now, most companies have considered their Customer Relationship Management systems  (CRM) as a separate system from their website, Internet marketing, social media and communication with their prospects, customers and partners.

Those days are gone.

Dont have a fence in your organization.

Your CRM strategy and resulting systems should be driving the design of your website, your social media, your Internet marketing and all communications with your stake holders. The overload of information we all receive each day, the result is the attention span of customers is so short these days, your organization needs a database and automated sequences to manage the process of communicating with your customers.

Our world is changing so fast with the tools of communication rapidly evolving (social media,text messaging, lexicon survelance, brand monitoring, etc) that you can not place your bets on any one form of communication medium as “the channel” to reach your clients. You need to segment your clients, refine focus your message and select the tools to delivery that targeted message.

At the heart of all this is your CRM database and the technology exists to integrate every communication into complete customer interaction history that can be tracked. You can drive your sales and marketing blind without the data and facts.

Smart companies who stay ahead of the competition will have their CRM system driving and tracking every communication with your customers.

Some questions to ask your team:

1. Is my website a integrated with my CRM and is this integration two way to both push and pull content?
2. Is my content integrated? Meaning all content is driving customers and partners to a sale, regardless of the medium?
3. Does my current customer database include a field for social media ID’s and addresses? ( Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, etc)
4. Am I using my CRM system to push communication to and from my social media presence?

If you  are going to attract and maintain the Attention Connection™ of your prospects and make them a customer for life, you will need a CRM system that is driving it all.

Stay connected and have a great weekend! Spring is here.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

Those old enough to remember the 1980 famous Stanley Kubrick film from the Stephen King novel The Shining starring Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance, remember these were the words the crazed the  frustrated writer Jack typed over and over as he crossed the threshold into madness.

Have I turned into Jack? Am I all work and no play because I prefer less numbers of personal tweets?

Yesterday I posted a blog about sharing personal information as status updates. I referenced Jeremiah Owyang, Internet Analyst who works for Forrester as an example of someone I truly respect and follow but I was not so keen on the detail of some of his personal updates.  In fairness to anyone I would write about (which is rare, as I stick to strategy, process, content and technology), I gave Jeremiah the heads up in an email. With 39,000+ followers on Twitter, a great blog site and a guessed avalanche of email volume, I thought my communication might just be glossed over or missed because of sheer volume Jeremiah gets each day.

Surprising, Jeremiah not only read my email, he commented on my blog and then posted a Tweet and authored a blog about the topic of ” How much should we share?’

The tweets and blogs set off a a great discussion with many followers and readers contributing to conversation. The results were mixed and you can judge by reading both comment sections yourself however, there are trends and interesting observations to be shared for anyone using social media streams.

1. Social media is a powerful medium that is truly undefined. There are no protocol rules.  It was suggested maybe a new protocol of #P be used on Titter to identify personal tweets.
2. Those commenting on both blogs tended to be OK with a balance and blend of business and personal tweets or stream updates
3. It was pointed out that Facebook tends to be used more for personal networks and Twitter for business. I agree.
4. Many suggested using two twitter accounts, one for personal, one for business. Not a bad idea but I hate the thought of managing another focal point of social media.
5. Grouping Tweets would be nice on one account on an outbound basis. this way personal and business could be separated.
6. Social media is swift, powerful and influence can be enormous and impactful. I run a boutique consulting firm based in Denver and my blog is intended for my client base as a library of thoughts to help them when they cross the bridge to implementing an Attention Connection™ System. My normal readership hovers around 225 readers. Thanks to the interactions yesterday, my readership shot to over 1685 for the blog post, I had more than 100 twitter direct messages and I picked up more than 100 followers on Twitter and many  new subscribers to my blog. A powerful connection to an internet person of influence.  A lesson we all can learn from.

A point I forgot to make clear yesterday to Jeremiah is I don’t mind some personal tweets but I don’t want to see true professionals be tuned out because they are now lumped into the same bucket with the attention hounds who call themselves celebrities.

I think its sad state of the world that actors and sports personalities are the top followed people on Twitter and their contribution to the world is so shallow compared to people like Jeremiah, and countless others who are contributing each day. I want to hear their contributions. Not what some shallow fool had for lunch.   I wont even mention their names or link to the attention hounds  as it makes my stomach turn. You know who they are.

When it comes to reading stream posts about what someone ate for lunch, there is only one guy I care to hear about what he ate and that is a client and friend of mine, Shawn Phillips. If you have not met Shawn, you should. He is 45 years old, a body that is ripped as a Greek God and a true expert on nutrition and health. He has authored several books, has the best performance fast food and will be featured in the May 2009 edition of Success Magazine.  Now there is someone who is worth hearing about what he eats and drinks!

Ok, so maybe it’s true, I am all work and no play. So hear it goes… a personal drop.

I spent the evening watching my 10 year old son Beck play basketball last night. I had nothing to eat while doing it and sat by no one interesting other than Joe’s dad.

Ok, that did not hurt too much. Maybe I can try it again tomorrow. Hmmm.

Keep the conversation going, leverage social media to it’s fullest.  Post what you want, be happy and be relevant to some.

Until next time, stay connected.