Month: August 2018

I got some spam this week from a guy who claims he knows me because of my job title.

He doesn’t.

The email said: “Your title suggests you know better than most that inventory solutions in your industry cost a fortune. Worse yet, most don’t integrate with QuickBooks.”

My title is “President,” not “Inventory Manager.” My company sells software and strategic marketing services, not stuff we store in a warehouse.

But that didn’t stop this guy.

He pitched his inventory management solution. It’s easy to use. It integrates with QuickBooks!!!!

Here’s the funny/sad thing: I work with lots of companies that manage inventory and might benefit from better software.

But I’m not buying from this guy.

I don’t trust him.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for “personalizing” emails. We encourage you to do it. We help many of our clients do it. Well-executed, personalized emails yield far better results than impersonal emails.

But personalizing does not mean pretending I know you.

It means including content that you believe will be pertinent to the reader — and doing it in an authentic way.

Saturation bombing people with a certain job title and implying you know the person — that’s not authentic. Sure, his email may reach some inventory managers who fall for the “personal touch.” But there’s nothing really personal about it.

Tom
MarketVolt

p.s. Want to discover how to personalize your emails to improve results? We can help you do that. MarketVolt’s experts can help you devise creative, smart strategies and tactics for your campaigns. We can help you with content planning, copywriting, email production, blogging or other content marketing. We can show you how to do it, or we can do it for you. If you want to learn more, give me a call (314-529-1431) or email me. 

When a half-ton grizzly bear walks through your campsite, 20 feet from where you’re sleeping, you take stock.

I should know. That happened to me two weeks ago in Alaska.

After sleeping soundly, I crawled from my tent to find my pals comparing notes. They’d heard it, splashing through the creek bed next to our tents.

“Had to be a bear,” they were saying.

Then we saw the tracks. Big as dinner plates.

Then came the stock-taking.

Profound questions like “How am I still alive?”

Turns out there’s a logical answer.

In mid-August, the land in southwest Alaska is covered with ripe berries, and the streams are filled with spawning salmon. It’s an all-you-can-eat buffet for grizzly bears. Easy pickin’s.

Bears know: Why bother trying to take down a nasty, pepper-spraying, gun-toting, punch-throwing, boot-stompin’ human being when you can get your fill with far less effort and risk?

Call it strategic targeting.

Grizzlies do it. So should you.

Ask and answer these questions…

Who are your best, ripest, most plentiful prospects?

Where do they reside?

What are the costs and risks in pursuing them?

Which are easiest to land?

If you’re not asking these questions, you’re probably wasting time and energy chasing difficult prospects…

…while a bounty of opportunity surrounds you on the hillsides and in the streams.

If you are asking these questions, but aren’t sure how to answer them, I can help. I know a ton of great strategies and tactics to help identify and target your best prospects (see p.s. below).

Tom
MarketVolt

p.s. Want to discover how to identify your best prospects and target them most effectively? We can help you do that. MarketVolt’s experts can help you devise creative, smart strategies and tactics for your marketing campaigns. We can help you with content planning, copywriting, email production, blogging or other content marketing. We can show you how to do it, or we can do it for you. If you want to learn more, give me a call (314-529-1431) or email me. 

When I was a kid, you couldn’t move through a big-city airport without being pestered by people pitching their religion and begging for money.

The “Hare Krishnas” were the most notorious. With their shaved heads and orange robes, the Krishnas would approach harried travelers, offer a small gift and then ask for a donation.

When they started this routine, Krishnas gave out small flowers. Travelers usually tossed those in the trash and rushed off without donating.

Then the Krishnas tried a new strategy. They gave out small American flags.

Travelers were reluctant to trash the flag. So they would pocket the gift, or pin it to their lapel.

And then…

…They would dish out some dough to the Krishnas.

After Krishna’s switched from flowers to flags, donations sky-rocketed.

Why so? Because when we humans receive a gift we value, we want to return the favor.

The key word here is value.

Give me a little flower, and I think, “Meh,” as I toss it in the trash and move on. Nothing of value here.

Give me a flag — even a tiny plastic one, fastened to a toothpick — and I have something more valuable. Sure, it’s not a diamond ring. But it’s not something I want to dump in the trash.

So I keep it. And now, even if I’m not conscious of the impulse, I want to return the favor.

Airports banned the practice, and courts upheld the bans. So the Krishnas are long gone from Terminal A.

But the marketing lesson lives on.

Give and you shall receive…

…as long as you give something of value.

Tom
MarketVolt

p.s. Want to discover how to create business-building content that delivers value to readers? We can help you do that. MarketVolt’s experts can help you devise creative, smart strategies and tactics for your marketing campaigns. We can help you with content planning, copywriting, email production, blogging or other content marketing. We can show you how to do it, or we can do it for you. If you want to learn more, give me a call (314-529-1431) or email me. 

Police in New Hampshire arrested a man at a Planet Fitness health club last month after he stripped and began yoga-ing in front of other patrons.

Naked yoga isn’t my thing. I don’t want to do it. I don’t want to see it.

(And I feel bad for the customers who were disgusted or threatened by this maniac.)

But I also have to hand it to the guy…

As police hauled him away, he acted all innocent and said, “I thought this was a ‘judgment-free zone.’”

That’s funny.

You see, Planet Fitness plasters the airwaves and internet with ads promoting itself as, yep…

…“The Judgment Free Zone.”

(You can see a bunch of the ads on the Planet Fitness YouTube Channel.)

Planet Fitness has 1,500 locations and 10 million customers.

The ads have a lot to do with that success.

The ads work, not because they’re funny. Funny ads are dime-a-dozen, and many of the funniest don’t drive business.

Planet Fitness ads work because they speak directly to the prospect.

They say to the prospect, “I know you. I know exactly how you feel. I understand your fears and anxiety. I have an answer for you…”

All successful marketing starts with knowing your prospects. That’s true with for-profits, nonprofits, business-to-consumer and business-to-business organizations.

Most unsuccessful marketing starts with product and service pitches: “Here’s the product or service I sell. Here are a few features. Wanna buy?”

Watch the Planet Fitness ads. No mention of treadmills or barbells or yoga mats. Just stories that say, “I know you.”

Tom
MarketVolt

p.s. Want to discover how to create business-building content that says, “I know you?” We can help you do that. MarketVolt’s experts can help you devise creative, smart strategies and tactics for your marketing campaigns. We can help you with content planning, copywriting, email production, blogging or other content marketing. We can show you how to do it, or we can do it for you. If you want to learn more, give me a call (314-529-1431 or email me).