Virtual Impax

Effective Strategic Digital Marketing

Business Basics

I hate “marketing”: The fashion model syndrome and your marketing message

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I’m searching for information which isn’t appearing in my “main” email in box. That means I’ve given my hotmail email account as the contact point and now, I’m searching through HUNDREDS of “marketing” emails in search of the information I need.

I confess…. I subscribe to email newsletters using email accounts I RARELY check… I’m not the only one. Your email subscribers do this too.

Heck, MY EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS DO THIS!

So today, I’m perusing the subject lines of emails, trying to find the “golden” one for which I seek. In the meantime, I see such subject lines as:

  • Now you CAN skyrocket your site to the top of the major …
  • Unlimited Hits To Your Website in Just 15 mins From …
  • Instant Cash in your Paypal Account
  • Earn 7 Figures in 2008 with Quantum Leap Principle…

Suddenly, I start to get angry.  I’ll call it the “fashion model” syndrome and it’s affecting legitimate marketing and advertising.

There isn’t any doubt that the incredible rise of anorexia and bulimia amongst teen girls is being fueled by the virtual skeletons with skin who are featured everywhere you look. At one point, the “fashion” was to make the  models look like drug addicts.  Fortunately, that extreme created a slight backlash and Dove launched their “real beauty” campaign.

Over the past half century, by surrounding normal growing girls with images featuring unrealistic “freaks of nature” we’ve desensitized our selves to what is normal.   Little girls have become desensitized to what normal, healthy female bodies look like and as a result, they aspire to the extreme.

The same desensitization is happening to your audience with your marketing messages.

In talking with a client a few weeks back, we were discussing how to promote her new product. We found ourselves in a horrible quandary. In order to effectively “compete” with the trash that is constantly bombarding us… we found ourselves toying with making ridiculous and outrageous claims in order to “grab” attention. We did it in the name of “brainstorming” and eventually moved on to actually creating messages that solved her client’s “problems” but the temptation was there.  It’s truly the softer, easier way to create an outlandish claim to move product or services.

Over promising and under delivering is not the path to marketing nirvana.

Making outrageous claims may have improved your email campaign open rates at one time, but now those outrageous offers are being tossed around so liberally are going to come back to haunt not only you.  The foundation of a successful business is repeat customers and building a customer base that refers your products and services to others… right?
Am I  being a prude?  Are outrageous claims and setting up unrealistic expectations just a part of “modern” marketing?   Is this just the “way” of marketing 2.0?

GoDaddy Domain Names and Hosting May Put Your Business in Danger

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I’ve had more than one client politely listen to my warnings about using GoDaddy as a domain name registrar/host and then go right on using their services. I do understand their reluctance to accept my warnings at face value. After all, I do offer in the course of my business what I believe is a “better” alternative.

I wrote way back in April 2007 on my free Blogger account about the GoDaddy Tar Baby. (You can actually see that at that time, I recommended the service for my clients. UGH! More crow for me to eat…. see my post “Quasi Scientific Blogging Observations).

Back to the Tar Baby that is Godaddy…. for those who think that the stories are of the “urban legend” category, Mashable offers this recent report GoDaddy Pulls the Plug on RateMyCop.

Daily Blog Post concurs and offers commentary on the “quality” of the hosting services at Godaddy as well.
Trouble has been brewing at GoDaddy for a while. Here’s an article I wrote a while back about GoDaddy’s troubles for my clients (it’s a PDF…. so you might want to save this rather than try to open it in your browser.)

Shortly after I wrote and posted that article, Godaddy began donning the cap of “internet police”… the horror stories are chronicled at the site NoDaddy.com In response, I created a GoDaddy Transfer package for my clients.  Quite a few took me up on the offer.

I will admit, I still use Godaddy’s domain name registration services for picking up domain names I have yet to put into “action”. See the following for why I won’t actively develop a site under any domain name I have that is registered with Godaddy.

Hey, I’m just like everybody else. My preferred ICANN registrar charges a LOT more than Godaddy does…. and I don’t want to pay more than I “have” to for my excessive list of domain names. But I’ve been getting a LOT of “update your information or else” emails from them and it makes me nervous… because I DID pay for those domain names because I DO want access to them!! Paying less than $10 per domain name loses it’s attractiveness when you realize that they can be taken from you on a whim.

I hate it when you find out the price being charged is just a fraction of what you’ll pay!

My Gym Gets an “F” for Customer Appreciation

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Sixteen years ago, I purchased my first “The Firm” work out tape. I was introduced to the product by an ad in SHAPE magazine.  I paid $49.95 which was a LOT of money for a video tape, even back then.   It marked the beginning of my personal quest to restructure my body without the aid of a surgeon.

I was an AVID home exerciser until I gave birth to my third child the same week we moved into a new home to accommodate our growing family.  For some reason, that series of events threw me into a tail spin from which I have yet to recover physically.  In other words, I fell off that horse and haven’t been able to get back on for any serious stretch since.

Fast forward 13 years later. Over the past decade, I’ve made multiple “false starts” at regaining my “the Firm” physique.  Thanks to my hyperactive dog, I had slain the “I gotta exercise” monster but I wanted to add weight training to my cardio vascular walking work outs. After six months of false starts….last December, I joined a gym.. . hoping to achieve the goal to the left!

I told the gym’s owner up front that I was was joining for much needed accountability. THIS IS IMPORTANT: I was assured that if I went MIA, I would get a phone call from them.  We’re grading on a curve and they’re the ones who set the standard. I didn’t set up a false expectation… they did that for me.

In February, I contracted the Bataan death flu that was going around. Because I suffer from some kind of sick mental defect, I found it IMPOSSIBLE to stop working and rest … which meant my recovery took longer than anyone else’s on the planet.  Needless to say, I haven’t been to the gym in the past month.

Not only did I not get a phone call… when my birthday came and went this week, I didn’t even get a birthday card from them.

I used to get cards when I lived in Indiana from my insurance agent on my birthday. My husband would get them too and I have to admit… its only in retrospect that I recognize what a powerful marketing tool it was.  I never would have imagined that something so small would have such a HUGE affect on my loyalty to my agent. In hindsight, those silly birthday cards actually kept me from rate shopping on my insurance! I realized that as I begin to “rate shop” for the third time since moving to the Sunshine State. I’m ready to jump ship. The agent with whom I worked isn’t in that office anymore…. I have no connection… no loyalty… no reason to remain other than getting the lowest rate possible. It’s an ugly position from which to try to do business.

Back to my gym… it’s not that they’re not trying to grow their business.  After all, they are having a drawing next week to present a 50″ plasma television to one lucky member.  The way to enter the drawing is to either renew your membership (1 entry) or bring a friend who joins (2 entries). The problem is… a chance to win a television isn’t enough to get me to renew my membership OR bring a friend. On the other hand, the guarantee of a warm, personable staff would be MORE than enough… and that’s not what’s happening there.

The friendly faces I saw behind the counter in December when I signed up are no longer there. The helpful personal trainer is gone and replaced by a young man whose disgust and disrespect for the middle aged woman with whom he was demonstrating the proper use of the equipment was glaringly obvious.  The pleasant, friendly older woman behind the counter when I joined has been replaced by a surly teenager who sneers as he hands me a bottle of overpriced water.  Snowbird season isn’t over…. what happened to the friendly staff?

Because of what I do… I’m conscious of what’s going on. I’m taking note.  The other morning, I found myself watching an infomercial for The Firm. I find myself thinking, “You know… I could pull out my old tapes and try to get back on that horse again.”

OOPS!!!   Not only am I NOT bringing friends and family in to join “my” gym… I’ve already checked out myself. They may have gotten 12 months of membership fees out of me… but they won’t get a renewal at this pace.

The thing is… the gym owner and staff “set the tone” for the gym.   They set my expectations by assuring me they’d stay involved… but once my check cleared… they were on to “more important things”…. like recruiting new members.

I tell clients over and over again…. you can not build your business exclusively upon new customers.    If you don’t have repeat business… you’re dead in the water.  Whether it’s a gym… or a blog… repeat customers are the LIFE BLOOD  of any business!!!

Is it egotistical and arrogant, or confident and self assured?

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Last week, I had a startling “dress down” via email. I have to admit… I was shocked! I mean, I’m a cuddly, lovable ball of fluff filled with marshmallow goodness! Yet when I put forth this self-description to friends and family… they dissolved into a puddle of hysterical giggles. Then I see where Catherine Lawson wrote about “Do you think you know it all“… oops…. maybe I do.

She links to James’ article “The Classic Entrepreneur” over at Men with Pens.

An entrepreneur is more than just a person who strikes up a business. There are specific personality traits and quirks that make up the classic profile of an entrepreneur – and they’re not very flattering.

His post continues…bull headed, control freaks are terms that appear at headers. Other unflattering terms such as “egotistical” appear under these headers.

OUCH! It appears that I am suffering from the classic symptoms of entrepreneur-itis which is pronounced by some people as “bossy, know it all jerk”.

However, I’ve been candy coating those descriptive terms. Instead of “egostical” I prefer “confident”. “Bull headed” is labeled with the much more flattering term “self confident”.  Am I being sef delusional?

I’m not alone in my struggle. IttyBiz offers a tongue in cheek “quiz” with the post Getting More Jobs: Are You Cocky Or Do You Have Balls?. The next post references the backlash unleashed as a result.

I admit, I thrashed about the evening following my stern dressing down. I thrashed… while Naomi found pay dirt with “Entrepreneurship: What To Do When You’re Scared Sh*tless

She’s right.  It all boils down to fear.  It makes sense that the emotion I was battling was fear.  She was right… as soon as I labeled that monster, I was able to process it effectively.

When I began this “self employment” journey a decade ago, I came from a position where I was PAID because people liked me. The more people who “liked” me, the more money I made. That’s the way the ad game is played. I sold my agency’s services to business owners who were successful enough to have built a business big enough to hire an agency. None of us had a functioning accurate crystal ball. They signed because we “clicked”. When they signed, I heard “Ka-ching!”

Talk above Pavlov and his experiments…. they like me, I make money. They don’t and not only do I not get rewarded with a nice big check, but my actions are reviewed and I get to meet with the agency owner to “improve” my process.

So it makes sense that my fear would be based upon some well founded experience.  They like me… I make money.  They don’t like me… my kids don’t eat.

Customers can’t measure quality… they can however decide whether they like me.

So I’ll work on making sure “confident” doesn’t escalate into “egotistical” … because really, isn’t egotistical just a matter of “confidence on steroids”.

One thing about it…. my blog and it’s readers will certainly let me know when I stray into “egotistical” land.

Who told you this was easy?

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Lately, I’ve been being “peppered” with “complaints” of sorts. Oh, complaints isn’t the right word. It’s just an overall sense of “Gee… this building a business stuff is HARD work!”

For example, there’s the client who is struggling to get a logo designed for his business. He signed up and paid his money ($200) to an online company that promised “satisfaction” and came back with four nice, high quality, “generic” logos for his business.

The problem?

His business is not “typical” of this genre. His original web developer “got” that when he built his web site… and I “got” that after a few conversations with him. Heck a year later, he still holds my feet to the fire reminding me of that fact!

The problem was that this logo company didn’t get it. He tried SEVERAL times to explain it to them, and each time they kept “regurgitating” back the same “generic” logo samples. Obviously, they didn’t WANT to get it or weren’t capable of understanding. Either way, they were NOT gracious when he asked for his promised “satisfaction guaranteed” refund.

We had the same “problem” when we hired a video production company to produce his television commercial. We even used a firm in southern Florida so I could work closely with them on the production of the commercial. I know I drove the company NUTS but in the end, we fought and kicked and screamed and finally ended up with a commercial which accurately “reflects” this client’s business.

In the middle of the logo debacle… my client wrote to me and his frustration came through loud and clear, even through email: “Why can’t ANYTHING be simple!”

Right now… as he’s building his business…. NOTHING is easy. We’re pouring the foundation of the business… and just like pouring the foundation of a building, this is important. This is the stuff his business success will be built upon. He’ll be using that logo, the web site, that television commercial, those business cards for YEARS to come. Better to pay a little extra today than pay to rework it all next year.

I’ve never, ever heard ANYONE in any marketing circle say, “What the hell! It’s OK if it doesn’t “tell” the client’s story at a glance. After all, it’s just a logo!”

So if you didn’t know before, I’ll tell you now:

BUILDING A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS IS HARD WORK!!!

building a businessIt’s hard and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling you snake oil!!!!

The reason for the high “failure” rate of new businesses is NOT because the business “didn’t make it.” The number of business “failures” in the sense of the business was in debt and unable to cover its expenses are actually much less common than you may imagine.

Over at Business Know How, Janet Attard says:

In fact, US Census Bureau data shows half of new employer businesses survive more than four years, and about one-third of closed businesses were successful at closure.

In other words, the reason for business “failure” is not because the business didn’t bring in enough cash to cover expenses but rather because the owner said, “SCREW IT! I can make more money for less headaches working for someone else!”

As a “boot strapping entrepreneur” you get to wear ALL the hats… even the ones you hate. You get to wear the sales hat… the bookkeeper hat… even the janitor’s hat. Oh, and even when your business “grows” to a point where you can hire other humans to wear these hats for you… the buck still stops with you. If the bookkeeper you hired doesn’t do his/her job… the buck still stops with you. If the sales superstar you hired doesn’t deliver, the buck still stops with you.

I guess because I grew up a family supported by my self-employed father, when I launched my business I knew it was going to be a long, hard road ahead.

As a side note, one of my father’s close friends was the late Jim DeVoe who launched J.D. Byrider. The J.D. in the name stands for Jim DeVoe. Another childhood friend of my father is Joe Astorg who now owns a chain of car dealerships in West Virginia. Both these men launched from “nothing” and worked for many years growing NOTHING into something BIG!  My father was also a car dealer who launched several other businesses as well.  I grew up hearing business growth stories nightly at the dinner table.   I guess that helped to set my expectations when I launched MY business. I knew the business would first have to sit up before it could crawl… and crawl before it could walk… and be able to walk before it could pull a loaded wagon!

Now, 10 years later, running my business is not NEARLY as hard as it was in the beginning. However, when the “young pups” who launched their business last October call to complain… I remind them that their new business is a BABY! They haven’t even been in business a full quarter yet and they’re expecting their “baby business” to be walking, talking and going to work supporting them. I wish I could think of an example of a time when that has worked.