1. When you provide price information always provide other price information. Price is always taken in context (even if that context isn’t related to the price.) It’s up to us as marketers to provide a rationale that easily allows our clients to choose what we want to sell. My favorite example of this from the book was The Economist magazine pricing example. One group of smart students from MIT saw the offers on the table on the left and another group saw the offers on the table on the right.

So, when the print ONLY subscription is available, buyers shift dramatically (84%) to the Print & Web combination. When the print ONLY option is not available, buyers shift dramatically to the web only option (68%). WOW! That’s 80% more revenue when they offer the ‘decoy’ that nobody bought. (From $8,012 with just the two options to $14,644 with the third option added).

What do you really want to sell and how can you offer it in a way that it is the obvious option for your customers?

And this is a good time to WAKE UP! It’s mid-March and we’re nearing the end of the first quarter of 2012.    This is a great time to check-in with your 2012 plans and see how your business and marketing are aligning with those plans.     It’s also a good time to course correct if you’re not on your way to meeting your marketing objectives.    You can see my example right here with this blog post– I fell off the wagon and I’m getting back on.    Can I blame my lapse on switching to decaf?   Just kidding, I’m all about personal responsibility!

Here are a few questions to help you check in and get your marketing brewing again:

So what are your objectives for this year? I have clients in a variety of stages with their businesses.   Some are booked to capacity; some are in industries that have seen a downturn and are working on maintaining their revenues; some are growing quickly.   Each of them has different objectives depending on their current situation and their medium to long-term goals.  What are your objectives?

How’s it going? Do you have the resources you need to be successful?  How’s your mindset?

What action can you take to wake up your marketing? So much of marketing success is about consistency.   Consistently using social media; consistently networking; consistently keeping in touch with your clients.   What actions are you taking (or can you take) consistently?

I offer a free marketing consultation to new clients if you’d like to brainstorm about waking up your marketing and having a well-brewed 2nd quarter!  Send me an email at: lisa@marketingu.com to schedule your appointment.

VISIBILITY  +   CREDIBILITY  + PERSONALITY  = PROFITABILITY

If you’re familiar with Dr. Ivan Misner of BNI fame, you might recognize some of this equation…. but I’ve added Personality to it.  And, I’ve been doing some analysis of my recent Facebook posts to see if it’s holding up.

But, let me tell you how I came to add personality to it…   A few years ago, I was new to Twitter and decided to follow David Allen (of Getting Things Done).  Most of his posts were about client work, airports, stuff he was doing and the occasional tip or insight.   And yeah, it was fine… but the one that hooked me was when he tweeted that he was going to the garden to practice his bonsai technique!  This glimpse into his personal life (and personality) was endearing and compelling to me.

Of course, when I first mention to students that they need to include some personal information or stories in their marketing communications, they are often quite uncomfortable with the idea.  I’m not suggesting that you share everything, but I am suggesting that portraying a multi-dimensional YOU is better for your marketing than just showing the fact-oriented, all-business side.

And interestingly, when I looked at the Facebook posts on my business page that generated the most interactions- the most successful one was when I announced my 16th wedding anniversary on December 30th!

So, as you’re planning your marketing communications– share your wisdom or course, but also share YOURSELF, it’s probably not TMI!

In mid-September (after my summer wasn’t quite as stellar as I had hoped), I sat down and blocked out my vacation calendar for the rest of 2011 and for 2012. This week for example, I had pledged to keep client time to a minimum and I have no client time scheduled for next week at all. I’ve also scheduled August 2012 to be a quiet month client-wise.

For the past year, I’ve also been experimenting with On My Business scheduling. I must admit, I’m still not 100% compliant with any of my attempts.

Over Thanksgiving, I worked on my 2012 program calendar. It felt really great to get the details for the first half of the year firmed up and the general decisions about workshops throughout the whole year decided too.

This week, I’ve been working on my editorial calendar. Newsletter content, Facebook post ideas, blog ideas. I’m a little more loose with the specific dates of each idea (more like monthly theme ideas).

Next week, I’m going to formalize a bit more my 2012 marketing calendar. In theory, I should have probably done that before my editorial calendar, but since I’m loose with the latter, I think it will be okay.

I’ve also been contemplating a cash flow calendar now that I have one year of data from MarketingU under my belt.

What calendars do you have for your business?

I read DH back in May. It was the first pick of the newly launched Biz-erkeley Book Club and I was excited to read it even though I wasn’t a Zappos customer. I’m one of the odd women who doesn’t adore shoes. However, I do know some raving fans of Zappos, and they really do RAVE!

As I started to read it I must admit that I was disappointed. It was all biography and I expected more business how-to. Fortunately, the insider’s look into Tony Hsieh’s youth finished about half-way through and I was able to get the insider’s look into creating a culture (some might say cult) that is in fact committed to customer delight. I truly appreciated Tony’s (I don’t know him, but since I don’t have an editor from the New York Times, I don’t feel obligated to say Mr. Hsieh) honesty about the really tough times when getting financing was hard or he lost interest in an earlier business and could barely get out of bed. Even the move to Las Vegas from the San Francisco Bay area, which as a Berkeleyan, I find nearly unimaginable, seemed reasonable given their circumstances!

But the lasting piece for me, was signing up on the book website and following the Delivering Happiness Facebook page. I signed up to be a Very Happy Person (VHP) on their website.

Talk about customer engagement and leveraging a platform!

Yesterday I got an email from the team at DH and they are promoting doing good and happy things by being a Very Happy Holiday Person. You can get a ‘badge’ (which is surprisingly motivating) by doing 5 things from a list of holiday happiness like:

* Donate cans to food organizations
* Write a holiday greeting (or two) to someone in need
* Call someone you love that you haven’t talked to in a while
* Take pictures of Holiday Happiness spotings and share on Facebook

Talk about big purpose!

The book has certainly spawned a bigger movement and even a separate organization for delivering happiness.

Happy Holidays and Much Happiness throughout the year to you and your family!

It is scary to think about turning away a prospective client or even thinking that there might be people who aren’t a good fit.

A recent experience with a client has helped me to come up with an easier way to frame this.  Here’s what happened.  She’s a wellness professional and was putting together a Get Healthy 2012 package for potential new clients.    Of course, anyone could be a good patient for her- but she did say that she really liked to work with moms with babies or toddlers.

As soon, as we went from anyone to moms with toddlers or babies- the marketing fell into place.   Where do you find moms like this?  What do they read?  Who do they talk to?  What messages will resonate with them?

All of the proper marketing activities became super easy to figure out!    She could put flyers in preschools; talk to women she knew who had connections at those places; post electronically in the places they’d be looking; run ads in the right places; clarify the messaging so it spoke specifically to them and they knew they’d be welcome;  What had started out as overwhelming if we were marketing to anyone became straightforward and doable.

Of course, her next program could be for a different target audience…  So, in speaking to my clients going forward, I’m going to frame it as sequential target audiences rather than only one!   Who is going to be your first?

If you have questions about your first or second or third…  and how to position your business, call in to my First Friday phone call- just sign up to the right and you’ll get the dial-in information!

I found this to be a quick and easy read. And empowering.  I’ve been on my own quest to build MarketingU into the business I want over the past year.   Derek Sivers describes his own challenges of making CD Baby into the business he wanted and letting it go when it stopped being the place for him.

There are some aspects of this book that are similar to Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh- especially the passages in both that talk about the doldrums of not wanting to go into the office.   At the point where you dread the thought of waking up and heading over to your office- you know you’re done.

Enjoy this quick summer read- and join us if you can ! or post on Facebook about the book:

My daughters and niece- 2 summers ago!

Summer has never been my favorite season. I have always favored Fall with it’s crisp air, new beginnings, starting school year and sweater-wearing. I love a lazy beach week as much as anyone else, but only if I can read (alot) and hang out with family and friends.

As my daughters just finished their school year today, I’m thinking about what our summer will entail. Camps for them, a family vacation, and plenty of marketing for my business. I was talking to a client today about how we can use technology to allow us to schedule things like blogs; Facebook posts and more. Summer is a great time to practice and build our marketing muscles and habits so we end the year in great shape.

My current list of summer to-dos includes giving this website a facelift; updating the copy throughout; finishing up two more course products and streamlining some of my own marketing processes. I have been developing some marketing muscles with the Biz-erkeley Book Club and my monthly free Q&A calls. Both of these allow me the opportunity to talk to other fabulous business owners about how they can implement change and be more effective.

How are your marketing muscles doing? What can you do to give them a boost this summer?

It is quite simple to add to your site. Take a look a the Twitter resource page and follow (no pun intended ) the directions there. You’ll quickly have a new Twitter follow button on your website (see the right hand column of this site (just above the Facebook stream to see what it looks like). Or you can also see it right here:

Follow @MarketingUcom

So, of course, you need a Twitter account to implement this and for many small, local businesses a Twitter account is low in cost (both time and money) but doesn’t add too much value in the short run. I think we’re still looking for the killer app for Twitter for small, local business (with the exception of food trucks that need to announce their locations!) Let me know if you’ve found a great use for Twitter for your business!

Tomorrow is the Biz-erkeley Book Club meeting and we’ll be discussing Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh.     In final preparation for the meeting, I’ve been doing some more poking around the book website and found this badge.   I love the concept of encouraging your audience to engage and show their love for your brand through this type of badge.  (Look for a MarketingU badge in the future )