Nine “Do Not” lessons

learned from 30+ years 

of sales-winning advertising

I know, accenting the negative isn’t always the best thing, but if you know what NOT to do, it’s a lot easier to figure out what you can and should do. I don’t pretend to know what you can and should do, but I sure can tell you what I’ve found out that doesn’t work (and throw in a few hints about stuff I know that works better!).

Here’s the scoop:

1. Do NOT advertise that you have integrity, or even about what wonderful integrity-inspiring things you or your business have done. When you conduct business at all levels with a high-trust approach and attitude, you will gain or boost a reputation for integrity that speaks for itself!

2. (…and this is really #1): Here is the single most difficult marketing, advertising, sales and PR challenge to face for all businesses everywhere (yes, you did indeed read that right: “all businesses everywhere”)– ready for this? — Do NOT promote how great you are to the rest of the world. Nobody cares. Well, maybe your mother cares, but nobody else does.

3. Do NOT get too cutesy. Readability must come before cleverness in font (lettering) use and treatments (Italics, boldfacing, spacing, underlining, shadowing, using a horseshoe for the letter “U” or crossed swords for “X” or an egg for “O”…etc.). And don’t trust a designer to worry about readability; most have no training or experience in how to design with and around text, especially branding lines.

4. Do NOT emphasize product and service features. Nobody buys features. People buy benefits. Make sure your marketing, advertising, sales, promotion and PR efforts focus on benefits — on answering the question, what’s in it for me?

5. Do NOT buy into fancy dog and pony presentations that stress how the work a creative service provider individual or organization or group or team can do for you will put you head and shoulders above the rest of your industry or profession. Get rid of creative service providers who seem more interested in winning awards for themselves than in making sales for you. Use performance incentives.

6. Do NOT ever accept a media rate that’s printed on a “rate card” or “rate sheet.” Think of it as the asking price for a house just put on the market this morning. Media people who aren’t willing to work with your budget aren’t worth your time and consideration. There are always other ways to market your business.

7. Do NOT try to hand-off advertising/marketing/PR responsibilities to someone who works with you because they articulate well or can write a mean email. And don’t try to do it yourself unless it’s what you specialize in. Remember that there are two success keys involved: writing skill and psychology expertise. Persuading customer and prospect brains is what it’s all about. 

8. Do NOT communicate too little or too much. Ask prospects and customers what they think the right amount of information is. Have someone who’s experienced at it run a focus group for you to get these answers, and to test alternative marketing approaches. 7 target market representatives for an hour works for this purpose. Give each a $20-$25 value reward for their participation.

9. Do NOT “settle” for ads, commercials, websites, landing pages, blogs, brochures, news releases, or social media executions or strategies that don’t feel right! If you don’t feel sure about something, remember it’s your business. Your gut instinct is your best decision maker.   

www.TheWriterWorks.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Twitter is for extroverts.

Facebook is for introverts.

 Businesses can’t be introverts.

According to Google, there are now well over 500 million Facebook users. According to anyone engaged in social media, Facebook is an IN-bound media vehicle. This means simply that visitors, friends, customers and prospective customers must come to you to visit your profile, your friends, your photos, your comments, your network, your “wall.” All good stuff if that’s what you seek.

Interestingly, Google also reported at the same time, that there have been over 20 billion (with a “b”) Tweets (message postings) on Twitter. Again, according to social media gurus, Twitter is (conversely to Facebook) considered an OUT-bound media vehicle. This means Twitter users are reaching out to the world with their Tweets instead of (like Facebook users) trying to bring the world to them

If you run a small business (unless it’s minuscule, and caters, for example, exclusively to a neighborhood), odds are that Twitter represents a better investment of time for marketing some aspect of your business than Facebook. Yes, Facebook affords an additional personal touch for many businesses, and there’s nothing wrong with using both when you can afford the luxury of time.

But consider this:

If you already have a website, you already have an IN-bound media vehicle, and it’s one over which you have total control… and you can personalize it as much as you choose, including being able to orchestrate ongoing discussions, exchanges and commentary, even in fact as much as Facebook, if not more.

For healthy and maximally-productive promotion of your business:

• Focus your energy on developing your own website with your own blog (or have somebody write one for you because the more active your blog is the more activity your site generates and the farther up you move in search engine rankings).

• Realize that your website will never and should never be done. Accept the fact that the best websites are those that continue to change and reflect the changes in the business and industry or profession they target and the marketplaces they cater to.

• Supplement your ongoing site development efforts with ongoing investments of time and creative energy in launching ongoing Twitter Tweets.

• Avoid getting snookered by all the social media and Twitter “experts” out there of which there are probably a hundred trillion or so (and these are probably mostly people who spend all day at it and so proclaim themselves advisors, coaches, consultants, and pros). 

• Learn the best mix the same way you learned your business — trial and error, and maybe enlist some trusted, proven experience businesspeople who are top marketing writers with a creative flair who can help you get started, or re-started.

So, you can just barely find me on Facebook only because I like to keep in touch with family and friends, but not because I have the need to spend hours “socializing” on the Web or because I think Facebook will help my business. It won’t. I look at my page every few months; that’s a clue. 

You can  find me on Twitter every night because I have built a very selective following of people who are interested in business and marketing and leadership and selling and self-development and communications and creative writing. When those people like what I have to say on Twitter, they visit my blog.

When they like my blog, they visit my other sites. When they like what’s on my sites, they call or email me and that’s how I build a prospect and customer base. In other words, use Twitter as your outbound vehicle (combined with emails and ads or whatever you choose) to get visitors to your inbound vehicle, your website. Why shuffle people into Facebook as an extra step to visit your website?

Shuffled visitors often fall by the wayside.

Don’t you?  

302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Business media coverage

doesn’t start and stop

  with a news release! 

If your business isn’t getting the kind of news coverage you would like, maybe you’re giving too much attention to what your news release says and not enough to those who decide its newsworthiness.

Whether or not your news release prompts media coverage has first to do with how newsworthy (and UN-self-serving) it is. Second, it will only get meaningful placement attention when you (or whomever you designate) give(s) meaningful appreciation attention. This doesn’t mean fawning over or patronizing reporters and editors. It means appreciating their situations and responsibilities.

In the past 90 days, over 30,000 journalists have changed their jobs, their “beats” or their places of work.

 (Source: www.MyMediaInfo.com)

So regardless of how stellar and airtight your perfectly worded and formatted presentation may be, this is an industry where writers and editors may have other things on their minds besides your news release.

                                                                             

In most cases, you will not break through the clutter with an email or printed page and a half of sensational news about your company’s products, services, activities, or ideas. It will take more than that. The word here is empathy — putting yourself in other’s shoes. Maybe you think you shouldn’t have to do that as a matter of business practice.

But consider that media people (as much as we may justifiably bash the network TV anchors and often extremist editorial board behaviors) tend to be sensitive beasts. They are caught in the middle of the need to balance legitimate value stories with the illegitimate ones that will sell more newspapers and magazines and more broadcast airtime to keep enough revenues flowing to pay their salaries.

Yes, of course there are always online avenues of news exposure. Some of these — for example, www.PRWeb.com and online granddaddy, www.PRNewsWire.com, charge exorbitant fees by comparison with www.MarketersMedia.com, but they have higher “Reach” capabilities. If you don’t need to connect the world, consider MarketersMedia.

Combined with Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube and other less significant players, these news release outlets can be highly productive channels.

In fact, most traditional journalists now use Twitter on a regular basis. (Source: www.MyMediaInfo.com) But, still, for really big news coverage, many continue to look to major media coverage as the difference between news and N E W S.

Okay, so do you think a single news release delivered to the Wall Street Journal from any lower level name awareness than Mr. Goldman or Mr. Sachs is going to get your new Whiz Bang Production Facility on the front page? On ANY page?

Public Relations requires Media Relations.

The best business coverage only happens 999,999 times out of a million because relationships are established and nurtured.

Like every other industry and profession, there are “tricks of the trade” you need to know in order to make your efforts pay off.

It cost money to learn and apply these secrets. Many PR firms charge $10,000 to $30,000 a month to play the PR game for you, but a good PR Coach (who will help you play the game yourself) shouldn’t be more than $1,500 to $3,500 a month (including writing a monthly release or two!).

# # #

931.854.0474 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Business or Personal, one small story or a lifetime . . .

“You should write 

a book about that!”

Probably everyone has heard this suggestion at one time or another. Most, however, shrug it off or dismiss it without serious thought.

Some simply don’t think that what they have to say is book-worthy. Others don’t think they have the time or wherewithal to pull it off. Still others just don’t know where to start or how to get good guidance without getting ripped off. A few start and quit.

If you have a story that can hold

people’s attention, you can write a book.

If you or your business has experienced some unusual or inspiring or outstanding pattern or event that prompts tears or laughter, or provokes serious head-nodding or grins of satisfaction, or that serves as a strong example of what to do or not do (failures, remember, teach success), you probably have the makings of a book.

What kind of book? Whatever kind suits your fancy.

Books, contrary to popular electronics

industry hype, are not dying.

Electronic readers are, in fact, most likely to cause an increase in book writing, publishing, and sales as they continue to come down in price. Kindles (now $139) and the like are becoming the new cell phone for a generation that’s now finding its way back to storytelling with this extended form of social media.  

A full-length, hard cover or paperback book serves an important archival value for many, and can serve to spike credibility to new levels of industry or professional acceptance . . . regardless of whether it ever gets on bookseller shelves and earns you a royalty.

A downloadable ebook can have enormous promotional value for your website and social media stardom.

Bottom line: A book is a book is a book.

Can just anyone help you? No. Simply because an individual has written or published a book does not make that person an expert, especially if you are considering some full-length story treatment, and even more especially if business is the subject or a key subject.

It takes considerable writing and storytelling skill to help someone pull a draft together. It takes editing expertise to make the draft work. It takes business experience and know-how for a book-writing consultant to be able to help create a business-based book. 

But securing the kind of writing/editing and publishing help that’s right for you, and the story you have in you, doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg. It depends entirely on what you’re looking to accomplish, and how willing you are to commit yourself to the task.

The best place to start is not with a title and dedication page. Start with putting ideas for pieces of your story on index cards or pieces of scrap paper you can shuffle around a tabletop when you have a dozen or so.

Next, organize the individual thoughts into some kind of order or plan or outline or list, then consolidate those that seem to fit or work together or play off one another. This is a good point to start poking around for some experienced guidance on productive ways to put your puzzle pieces together, and to help you keep focused and on target with your message. 

Need an informed, honest book idea opinion that’s FREE to my blog visitors? Try me. I just finished writing my 6th book, hold major writing awards, offer 35 years of business experience, and yes, I am approachable. (See phone and email below) 

www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You. God Bless America.

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

You have a business tale

to tell, but no time to

  tell it?. . . or write it? 

     So what’s your story, Boss?

     Is it long or short? Simple? Complicated? Fictional? Factual? Happy or sad? Burning hot? Icy cold? Based on true firsthand experience,  or imaginary, hand-me-down sagas? A story of family or of strangers? Neighborhoods or distant travels?

     Is it manufacturing or retail or distributorship based? B to B or B to C? A story of tourism or industry? A professional practice story? A legal or medical story? A growth or failure story? A partnership or separation story? What is it all about?

     You can and probably already do tell your story in chunks — in website pages, email messages, news releases, brochures, newsletters and interview answers. Or you can tell it (or major parts of it) all in one place that can then BE chunked up.

You can accomplish this with more complete, more comprehensive forays into the land of literature — a series of feature articles, ebooks, position (“white”) papers, booklets, specialty magazines, ongoing blog posts, and full-length books are some examples of what other successful business leaders are now doing.

     There are armies of talented organizations, groups, businesses and individuals standing in line, ready to pounce on filling any and all of the challenging opportunities for exposure — and enhancing credibility and reputation — that are noted above.

     They work on commission. They work on fees. They work on incentives. You can do it cheap or expensive, or somewhere in between.

     You will –as with most things in life — get what you pay for. If you’re happy with your neighbor’s 16 year-old being your webmaster and your new MBA assistant writing your sales and marketing pieces, you will no doubt take comfort in their efforts to represent what’s in your head!

Reminds me of the old Kawasaki Motorcycle helmet ad — “If your head is worth $29.95, buy a $29.95 helmet!”  

     Here are half a dozen thought-provokers:

1) Don’t give up on your business story idea, whatever it is. Instead, start to bullet-point it on index cards or a pocket pad or your laptop.

2) When you know what it is that you seek for your main message, start to scout around for someone with a track-record for the kind of writing you want.

3) Window shop. Check out Bing and Google. Do a little homework.

4) When you find the right person to represent your interests, that individual may also very well have ties to or a relationship with some print-on-demand book publisher-printer types, and be able to steer you in the most appropriate and economical directions. These days, you can print just a few (or even just one book!) copies and be able to order more with a phone call or email.

5) Specialized magazines are also readily available and can be produced as you wish, and individually and personally addressed as you wish.

6) Blog posts can be written in your “voice” so they sound like they’re coming from you (while you spend your time doing other things!) Regular blog posts, incidentally serve to activate your website which draws the attention of search engine spiders and lifts your search engine rankings.  

     Got an idea you’d just like to toss out to see if it could work? Give me a call. No consult fee for blog visitors.

www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You. God Bless America and Our Troops.

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

If your business works,

so does Twitter!

     Think of Twitter as one gigantic 24/7 trade or professional show and customer service center up in the sky!

     And start out by just plain dismissing all the “magic secrets” about how to use Twitter to build your business, because there are none.

     Just because social media may be a fairly new avenue for you to be dabbling in for your business, don’t be intimidated by all the crackpots!

     Never a day passes without at least a dozen solicitations attempting to sucker new users into a commitment to get new fans and followers, to learn the magic, the secrets, the steps, the bullets, the actions, the methods, the techniques, the 3 this, or the 7 that.

     If your business works, and you have a respectable reputation, and you know what you’re selling (believe it or not, not everybody does!), then simply use Twitter posts to make provocative, or engaging, or teaser-type billboard/headline-style statements, followed by the website page other Twitterers/Tweeters can click on to learn more.

     But you can’t stop there. . . not any more than you would avoid a courteous greeting up front, or make a sales pitch at a service counter or on a trade show floor, and then not listen to what the prospect or customer has to say, even dumb comments about the weather.

     Be social. This means stepping off your sales pedestal long enough to take notice of what others are posting on Twitter, and to make and post some pleasant response to those you might agree with, and that fit the business image you want to project. Be careful with humor, especially avoid jokes you wouldn’t comfortably share with pre-teens.

     This can include you doing an “RT” (for “Re-Tweet,” same as “repeat”) of other comments and/or quotes you particularly relate to —  no different that a prospect mentioning a name or place or thing or idea that’s on your personal list of favorites, and you commenting back, as you would in any conversation with a friend whose attention you value.

     This is an important ingredient in making Twitter work — being yourself, and pretending you are in a real (instead of virtual) room facing the little (avatar) faces, sharing niceties. If some comment makes you choose to feel angry or upset or overly emotional or cocky or sarcastic or arrogant or pedantic or anything besides pleasant, choose to ignore it and move on to other comments.

     You will not win friends and influence sales by losing your cool or tossing your cookies or acting P.O.’d at some moronic statement.

     People “out there” need to see that you are approachable, easy, and friendly before they’ll pay you any serious attention by deciding to “follow” you (your posts) or to visit the web pages you include with your posts. This is, after all, SOCIAL media first. Those who see and read your comments will allow you the business focus as long as you behave like a good guest at their party. 

     Get yourself hooked up with a free “Tweet Deck” to gain a more useful perspective and to better accommodate your comments. Then take a couple of hours each day for a couple of days (spread out into time chunks is best) to follow the basic flow of people and comments and analyze them as a prospective market.

     Take notes.Pay attention to who’s who:  the rampaging political types, the religious fanatics, the nut cases, the teeny-boppers, the famous quote quoters, the too serious, the too frivolous, the sex-seekers, the weirdos. Get a fix on who you want to visit your webpage and start clicking on their “Follow” buttons. Many will reciprocate and be your followers.

     Decide early on if you want only a selective following or you want to play the numbers and amass big numbers (depends on what you’re selling).

     When you think you see a way to fit . . . fit! Twitter works for those who work at it.  

 # # #

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals. God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

 The bigger they are,

the harder YOU fall

 …but the little guys

can cripple you too!

Here’s the inside scoop on “outside” marketing experts . . . 35 years’ worth of experience and considered judgment for you to chew and digest:

WEBSITE DESIGNERS who claim to have the gift of marketing genius have nada. If they’re older than 14 to start with — even 30-something — they are still probably 14 mentally; and odds are they haven’t a clue about marketing, but have learned to sound convincing about it. Exceptions? Sure. Check my blogroll.

AD AGENCIES know less than website designers. They are heavily invested in winning themselves awards and cornering clients into excessive payments. They have no down-in-the-trenches sense of how to make sales, nor do they particularly care as long as the next big client stands ready on the horizon.

•      They are particularly skilled at song and dance “dog and pony shows” that tell clients how great it’s going to be but that accomplish nothing to write home about, as long as the next big client stands ready on the horizon.
•      If you’re looking for artsy or funny or insulting or dramatic ads and commercials that have high impact but make no sales, go to an ad agency. And the bigger the agency, the more it will cost you and the least likely you’ll get the results you seek.

PR FIRMS do have a pretty good camaraderie with numerous media people and can be effective — depending on whether you pay them $10,000 a month or $15,000 a month — at wining and dining and schmoozing editors, writers, and sometimes publishers into considering coverage for the news releases they write and submit for you.

•      And they certainly know how to play the news release format game, but they rarely if ever are able to capture the essence of your business message and bring about action because they almost universally seem to think they know more about your business than you do. So what comes out is mundane, meaningless babble.
•      Make them write three test releases and explain why the words in them are the best words and who and when they would submit them to and why.

MARKETING GROUPS will tell you they’ve got you covered, yet only a minuscule number actually realize that marketing is the umbrella and that the functions under that umbrella include sales, advertising, promotion, packaging, pricing, merchandising, PR (public relations), industry and investor relations, customer service, CRM (Customer Relationship Management), website design and development, email and social media promotional activities, employee alumni associations, buzz (word-of-mouth) marketing, and on and on.

•      Ask them HOW they “cover” you and see how many of these avenues are mentioned.  

MEDIA. Would you have a guy from the slaughterhouse prepare your meals?

SBA SCORE COUNSELORS. SCORE is Senior Corps of Retired Executives. A lot of the world’s nicest, most well-intentioned people in this organization that provides FREE consulting.

•      Unfortunately, like the federal government they represent, they are completely out of touch with the realities of day-to-day business management, and may as well be on Jupiter for the marketing guidance they provide. Time is money. Don’t waste your time.

     What’s left? Independent consultants and project managers. Probably these folks represent your best choice, but only if you’re careful in your selection. Some of them are just as crooked as many of the others.

     ASK QUESTIONS. Ask for explanations about HOW a candidate thinks about what she or he claims to have accomplished. Ask for examples. Ask why something that worked well worked well and why something that didn’t, didn’t. How confidentially do they offer information? Who are a couple of client types they can suggest for you to contact to confirm.

     Beware of self-proclaimed “experts”

with cookie-cutter solutions!

# # #  

302.933.0116  Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Okay, before you buy it,

here’s what’s wrong

with our product!

     The smaller the business, the closer it gets to practicing transparent marketing.

     The farmer at his produce stand will tell you that the corn wasn’t picked today, or that the peaches are maxed and need to be consumed within 24 hours, or that the berries may be tart because they’re not quite in season.

     The bigger the business, the more money that’s paid out in fees for ad agencies and PR firms to cover up product and service faults with retouched photos and exaggerated claims. Always intentional? No, not always, and especially not always on the part of the hired creative guns because clients often keep bad news locked up and intentionally mislead their marketing people.

     What kinds of product and service faults? HA! Start with air!

     Soap companies pump air into their bars of soap to give them bulk and make consumers think they’re getting bigger amounts and better dollar value. Note how many more bars of corporate giant soap you go through compared to homemade soap. In the end, the big brand names full of air cost more.

     How about big brand ice cream? Pumped in air? Of course!

     They can fill the containers with less product and make more profit. Do you think consumers ever think about weighing their ice cream? Maybe we should. Guaranteed that volume doesn’t correspond to weight anywhere near as closely as with homemade ice cream (and don’t believe any stories about the big boys using lighter ingredients!).

     And you thought just car dealerships, banks, and hospitals had a lock on dishonest representations?

     How about beauty products? Dense creams used in many big name skin and hair care brands get watered down and sold as “Instant” formulas — as, for example, sprays instead of in jars —  using a fraction of the original thick ingredients from the jar version, and selling it at a higher price because now it’s “Instant.” Uh, that’s “Instant” as in instant profit rewards for adding the water.

     This could go on for a zillion blog posts, but I don’t pretend to be Ralph Nader or Consumer Reports. I’ve just experienced situations like these first-hand and have stories you wouldn’t believe about hot dogs, pickles, bacon, chicken, drugs, doctors, and all the electronic stuff that thrives on planned obsolescence. (And you needn’t go any further than the recording industry on that count!)

     The point is that none of us will ever live long enough to see totally honest transparent marketing (or leadership, for that matter), but the answer is NOT “if you can’t lick ’em, join ’em” because THAT is an evasive political response that’s routinely practiced by dishonest money-crazed government and big business, and WE are small business, right? (No, this is not a rallying cry!)

     We are 30 million strong in America. We are not all honest. We are not all willing to be forthright in our marketing, And we are not all beyond telling some white lies or committing errors of omission when they fit our purpose, but most small business owners are, I believe, basically honest about the products and services they represent and market.

     If you think you need to “pad” the wares you offer or the claims you make or the words that drive your marketing programs, perhaps you should consider re-evaluating where you’re headed with your business and where you see yourself going in life. If there’s not some genuine compatibility evident, you could be setting yourself up for disaster.       

 www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You. God Bless America and America’s Troops. “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]  Make today a GREAT Day!

A lesson from one

 of the masters . . .

You run a business. You know that when you’ve got something good, you run with it, right? Wouldn’t you expect something better from one of the world’s leading brands than a half-hearted, slipshod application of their “signature slogan” theme line?

On the heels (and after many years) of one of the most memorable slogans in history — “Leave the driving to us!” — the company came up in 2007 with one of the all-time worst slogans: “We’re on our way!” [Typical consumer response: “Who cares?”]

“We’re on our way!” totally disregarded the surge in consumerism which rendered this kind of chest-beating as inappropriate and ineffective. (And to put the icing on the cake, Greyhound reportedly spent over $60 million trying to shove their braggadocio down consumer throats!) This move was so predictably bad that had they spent even one nickle on it, they would have been making a poor marketing and management judgment.

Ah, but there was a comeback. Almost. Greyhound finally did outdo itself by actually topping that “Leave the driving to us” classic with this more recent touch of brilliance [and I truly do mean brilliance]:

Greyhound. Stop Less. Go More. 

Wow! What a terrific branding theme line. It says so much with so little. It’s customer-focused. I saw it on the side of one of their buses cruising down the New Jersey Turnpike. (Yes, it is true that occasionally one may be fortunate enough to actually cruise on this road that’s eternally jam-packed with Evil Knievel and Kamikaze wannabees.)

But then a funny thing happened.

A second Greyhound bus passed that, instead of the great ‘Stop/Go” theme on the side, had some very somber and unintelligible statement on the back that was an assertion of sorts about a business alliance with some organization whose name was replaced with a totally obscure logo that seemed about the size of maybe a golf ball or two. . . not terribly identifiable at 65mph.

Awhile later, I noted yet another Greyhound bus that appeared to have nothing on it except their famous racing dog  logo.

SO what?

Here’s what. It makes no marketing sense whatsoever to have different vehicles from the same company displaying different graphics and not capitalizing on the proven importance of repetition in selling. Can you imagine spending millions of dollars to establish a theme line (or signature slogan as Greyhound calls it) and not have that line appear in every conceivable application?

And is it a no-brainer to put it prominently on the sides of vehicles you operate?

Now this is no small-time company here. We’re talking about the largest North American intercity bus company, with 16,000 daily bus departures to 3,100 destinations in the United States. That ain’t hay. Yet the money they spent might as well have been hay.

If giant corporate entities like this haven’t the sense to get the right kind of marketing input, just imagine the plight of small business enterprises.

But small business can do what big business cannot. Small business can turn on a dime, be more innovative more quickly and capitalize on opportunities as they surface. Small businesses can also make the kinds of marketing-judgment and tweaking-help choices that big businesses can’t make without getting themselves too tangled up in politics.

I have always thought Greyhound to be a great company with great service and a reputation to match, but in the instance cited, they have clearly failed at making the most of what they already have, to achieve their goals quicker and more soundly.

Don’t waste your time, money, and effort trying to be too smart about too many things. Bring in a fresh, informed and experienced, outside perspective to turn what you have to say into a marketing message and approach that energizes employees and suppliers, and that — most importantly — stimulates and generates sales.

302.933.0911  Hal@BusinessWorks.US

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals!

God Bless You. God Bless America and our troops.

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT Day for someone!

Tweet it or beat it.

     I write. Among many other things (mostly marketing, advertising, PR, sales, blogs, and websites), I write books.

     So the other day, when I received notice that some Southwestern-based “writing” business was a new Twitter “follower” of mine, I proceeded to do a quick check to validate their legitimacy and see if there might be some compatible interests.

     Unlike the quest to win popularity by amassing huge numbers of any “followers,” I have instead always pursued a course of selectivity. I choose only those followers who share interest in entrepreneurial leadership, writing, personal and professional growth and development and/or small business ownership and management ideas and issues.

     By sacrificing quantity for quality, I have of course -in the process- learned to accept the humility of trading off my options to compete in the who’s-got-the-most-followers type of confrontation with Ellen and Lady Gaga. But, hey, I cut my own mustard. Besides, some say I have better legs than both of them!

     Okay, back to business— so my little Googlization due diligence effort produces a website for these “book writers,” which I scan quickly and then decide to click back that I’ll follow them too. After all, their business, I discovered, like part of mine, writes and ghostwrites books for other people too. Hmmm, maybe I’ll learn a thing or two by watching their “Tweets.”  

     Now let’s sidetrack here a minute to explain for the benefit of all non-Twitterers (there are maybe 27 or 28 of you on the planet?) that some people who get new followers think they need to respond to each new follower with a direct message (DM) “thank you” note.

     Some think that because you have clicked on them to follow their little posts, that the flood gates are now open for them to to rush into your Inbox with some bombardment of sales spiels, like “Thanks for following. Now that we’re friends, here’s how to get 283,000 new followers by a month from Tuesday for three easy payments of just $29.95 plus tax and handling charges of $117 per order.”

     Still others respond to your (no doubt brainless) decision to follow them by replying with a (shudder) robot message that thanks you profusely and may offer a “gift” at a website that usually sounds something like http://UBmybestnewtwitterfolloweronearthoranyplaceelseintheuniverse.com

     Then there’re the hard-sell follower guys: Hi. Thx for follow. When U need to clean your pipes or fix your drip, call Flushoff Plumbing at 800-Brown-Down. Starting to get the picture? Twitter kinda has it all.

     So what to my wondering eyes do appear within minutes of my click to be a follower of this book writer business but one of those DM thank you notes that says:

“Who do you than needs to write a book?”

     Huh? I’m not thinking you guys are going to be on my shortlist of likely collaborators or some shing star stable of literary talent I might refer others to. What’s it add up to? An unforgivable screw-up with no second chance at a miserable first impression.

     How careful are you and your people with the wording in your messages? If even a self-proclaimed book-writing business doesn’t use Spellcheck. chances are that many companies which have nothing to do with writing or publishing, don’t use it either.

     A word to the wise is that using Spellcheck makes you look good –especially to prospects and customers. Not using it makes you look unprofessional and dumb. Sloppy messages communicate to the recipient that the sender doesn’t care enough about her or him to bother with ensuring clear communications. 

     Sloppy messages may work for friends, but not for business. 

Happy Twittering!

 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US 

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