Archive for the ‘Great Ideas’ Category

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Don’t Say It. Be It.

Thursday, April 14th, 2011

Some people dream of success, others make it happen. Of course, you can dream as much as you like but waiting for things to happen gets you nowhere. Get active and start making things happen.

Whatever journey your path takes you on, the most important thing is to have passion in what you do.

Did you go to college, get your degree, and end up doing something totally unrelated to your major? Studying it did not make you passionate about it. It wasn’t your path.

Education or even talent aren’t worth much without passion. So do the stuff that you love and you’ve always wanted to do because without it, you’ll feel stuck and unfulfilled. If you work in a bank but your dream is to be a naturopath, then make those changes now. Make this year the turning point in your life. When you do what you love you will be rewarded — it will just flow naturally.

Look at those around you who just make things happen. They have a clear goal in mind and they know where they want to go. They don’t always have a plan but they have the passion and the tenacity to make it work, and they achieve their goals as the end result.

Trust us when we tell you this. If something important to you, you WILL find a way. If it isn’t, you’ll find an excuse. It’s that simple. Find your way. Make it work, whatever it takes. Are you 10 kilos heavier than you should be? It is simple: Commit, go to that gym every day, no excuses, and train until you lose those 10 kilos. When you accomplish this, you’ll have the confidence to do more. Set a goal and make it happen.

Want to stop smoking? Stop making excuses, take control of your circumstances before they take control of you.

Success isn’t just about what you accomplish in your life, it’s about what you inspire others to do and when you do accomplish something as simple as quitting smoking or losing weight, you’ll inspire others to do the same. Anyone can change the world, and everybody should try. And it all starts with your own life.

Stop waiting for the perfect time to do what you want to do. Do it now.

Thanks, Cool Hunter.

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What I Taught in College Last Week

Tuesday, October 26th, 2010

For those who didn’t know, I teach at the University of SC in the Journalism School; Mass Communications and Information Studies to be “proper.” But being a graduate of the “Journalism School,” back in the day when that word was still used in the name, it will always be the “J-School” to me.

I teach Advertising Campaign Strategy to graduating seniors. (at least they think they are graduating. They have to pass this class first.) And it’s the time in the course calendar where we discuss “communication tactics” as part of the strategy. In the lecture portion of my class last week here were a few general points I made about communication tactics that sometimes get overlooked: (more…)

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Posted in Branding, Creativity, email marketing, Great Ideas, Highly Recommended, internet marketing, New Ideas, Research, Social Media, Traditional Media, twitter, What we're working on now | 2 Comments »

Retailer? Boost Your Holiday Sales with these 5 Social Media Tips

Monday, October 25th, 2010

Are you in retail? Social media will drive more holiday purchase decisions this year than ever. In fact, 27 percent of last year’s holiday shoppers were influenced in some way by social media; 59 percent used search engines as their first choice for gift finding. Plus, keep in mind that 47 percent of consumers will have already started their holiday shopping by the end of October!

How can you as a local retailer engage shoppers using social media to drive revenue this holiday season? Let’s start with several low-cost and creative ideas that you can put in place this week to start off the holiday shopping season with a social media kick.

  1. Start now with social media. Building a following on Facebook and Twitter, or through some simple product videos or blog posts can pay dividends as we near the holiday season, especially when last-minute shoppers are seeking local options.
  2. Get reviewed online. Like signage in a retail store, customer reviews on Google and Facebook draw attention and help differentiate between similar retailers. More than 70 percent of consumers trust recommendations from reviewers and recent studies show 83 percent of all holiday shoppers this year will be influenced by customer reviews.
  3. Be helpful with your holiday messaging. Social media is really about sharing useful content with your audience. Make their gift-finding easier by offering helpful ideas and information, and you’ll be rewarded with increased loyalty, recognition, store traffic and online “word of mouth.” Think about the gift-giving challenges of your customers, and speak to those needs with your Facebook posts or Twitter tweets.
  4. Use social media with traditional marketing. If you distribute flyers, postcards or do any form of advertising, include your social-media links everywhere your customers see your name. Don’t forget the in-store applications, where something as simple as sticking a printed “Follow us on Facebook” card in each shopping bag can help boost followers and online word-of-mouth marketing.
  5. Use pictures and videos where possible. Whether you sell hand soap, jewelry or pheasant hunting trips, research shows that people respond to posts with photos and video much more favorably than to simple text postings. Remember, you’re trying to tell your story, and any imagery you can use to help tell that story will bring in more holiday business.

Need help? We’re good. Ask anybody. Give us a call!

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Little Lies and Small Promises

Tuesday, September 28th, 2010

“I’ll be out of bed in five minutes,” is not a true statement because it’s a promise not meant to be kept. It actually means, “go away, I’m sleeping, I’ll say what I need to get rid of you.”

“Your call is very important to us,” is not a true statement either. The truth is self-evident.

“I promise I’ll tell the manager about this,” is of course not a real promise either. It might be uttered with good intent, or might be designed to get an annoying customer to go away, but still…

You can already guess the problem with little lies. They blur the line, and they lead (pretty quickly) to big lies. The worst kind of little lies are the ones you make to yourself. Once you’re willing to lie to yourself, you’re also willing to cheat at golf, and after that, it’s all downhill.

Companies that refuse to break small promises have a much easier time keeping big promises. And they earn a reputation, one that makes their handshake worth more.

Given that expectation and trust are just about all we have left to sell, it seems to me that little lies and small promises are at the very heart of the matter. And they’re a simple choice, nothing requiring an MBA or a spreadsheet.

It all depends on what you want to stand for.

from Seth Godin at sethgodin.typepad.com

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What Are You Trying to Make Happen? And How Will You Measure Progress?

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

“When you don’t know where you’re going,
any road will get you there.”
- Cheshire Cat, Alice in Wonderland

Violent crime in America declined each year from 1993 to 2004. Then just about the time the iPod became popular in 2005, violent crime began trending upward. CONCLUSION: iPods cause violent crime. Or at least that was the conclusion of a 2007 report published by The Urban Institute, a research organization based in Washington. (no, really.)

Poor advertising strategies stem from just such logic: “Since one event precedes another, the first event must be the cause of the second.” This fallacy of logic is so common it has a Latin name: Post hoc, ergo, propter hoc, “after this, therefore, because of this,” referring to the mistaken belief that temporal succession implies a causal relation.

Most business owners look around, observe their circumstances and then try to make sense of it all. Their thoughts and plans are guided by what they see. But any scientist will tell you correlation and causation are not the same thing.

Don’t tell me what you see. Tell me what you want to see. “What are you trying to make happen? And how will you measure progress?” When I ask these questions, most business owners stammer, stutter and hedge, then change the subject by asking a question of their own.

I usually ignore that question and ask, “How am I supposed to help you make something happen when you can’t tell me what it is?”

How many of your actions are actually reactions triggered by circumstances? Are we allowing the merely urgent to set aside the truly important?

Do you know what you’re trying to make happen? Can you tell me exactly how you plan to measure progress? The shortest distance from Point A to Point B is always a straight line. The best marketing strategies begin by drawing a straight line from Where We Are Today to Where We’d Like To Be Tomorrow.

No stack of dollars can be your lighthouse. Dollars are merely a byproduct. Money fails as a compass because it can be found in every direction.
Where do you want to be tomorrow?

Good. Now let’s get started.

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