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Expedia And Sales Chutzpah

Peter · May 22, 2017 · Leave a Comment

A Lesson From Expedia On Sales Chutzpah

OK, we all have bad customer service experiences. I get it. But when the bad experiences go across four Expedia service phone conversations (that lasted about three plus hours over two days) and another six back and forth Twitter direct tweets and the customer who is spending over $5,000 on the trip is still unsatisfied (that’s me), there must be something wrong with how Expedia runs the humanbeing (vs. digital) sales service side of its business.

No, This Post Is Not About Expedia. It Is About Your Ad, PR, Digital, etc. Agency

Stick with me because this blog post is actually about a way to grow your agency – a way that requires a bit of chutzpah. However, before I get to your agency and an unignorable sales tactic, I have to share a tiny bit of customer service related background to set up the chutzpah recommendation.

A few weeks ago, I used Expedia to book two tickets from Mexico City to Budapest for a summer trip to see the Hungarian F1 Grand Prix race. This week, I called Expedia to change the trip by adding a few days up front and move the original first destination from Budapest to Vienna. I knew about and was willing to spend the extra $500 flight change charge and, before I called, I had also looked at all of the available flight options. I was prepared for the service rep call. But, I was not prepared for the following:

Expedia’s phone system could never recognize my itinerary number or phone number (the ones that are listed on Expedia’s original flight plan document). I knew I was in the system because when I finally got to a rep, she recognized the numbers. What’s up with Expedia’s automated phone system and the interface with its database?

While it took me about 30 seconds to get to the Iberia Airlines and Expedia sites to find my reservation detail, it took the multiple Expedia reps I talked to at around two minutes.

I was repeatedly asked if Mexico City was my origination airport (I live in Mexico) and if I was to change flights in Madrid as stated on my reservation. Um, yes.

The reps took forever to find alternative flights although I was helping them find the alternatives. And on. I won’t bore you with more including the third rep who apologized for how sloooooow Expedia’s computer was working.

Taken individually, these don’t appear to be too onerous. However, in aggregate, they were and I gave up without making the flight change.

OK, two more points.

I was so pissed off that I sent LinkedIn InMails to three Expedia marketing execs gently complaining about the service and asking them if they ever sat in on customer calls – consider this action an internal “Store-Check”. It’s been four days since I sent the emails. Any response? No. Sure these folks get lots of emails. But, I used attention-getting customer-centric subject lines.

The Art Of Personal Branding

Peter · March 22, 2017 · Leave a Comment

A How To – Personal Branding Is A Fine Art

Warning, it will take you close to 500 words to actually get to my main point about the art of personal branding and a great example of How To. So, if you want, skip ahead. However, if you need a bit of branding history, don’t scroll yet.

A Definition

Today, everyone (well, OK, not everyone, but it sure seems like everyone) from high school students developing their college resumes to job seekers to ad agency owners like you to consultants like me, use personal branding to create their very own brand. What is a personal brand? A definition from our friends at Wikipedia…

Personal branding is the practice of people marketing themselves and their careers as brands While previous self-help management techniques were about self-improvement, the personal-branding concept suggests instead that success comes from self-packaging. The term is thought to have been first used and discussed in a 1997 article by Tom Peters.

Do you know Tom Peters? I bet many of you don’t. Back in the 90’s Tom was a major marketing influencer and as you can see from this 1997 Fast Company article, “The Brand Called You. Big companies understand the importance of brands. Today, in the Age of the Individual, you have to be your own brand. Here’s what it takes to be the CEO of Me Inc.”, he laid it all out. FYI: 1997 was twenty years ago. Side note, I kinda laughed when I read how Tom boldly referred to himself at the close of the article…

“Tom Peters (TJPET@aol.com) is the world’s leading brand when it comes to writing, speaking, or thinking about the new economy. He has just released a CD-ROM, “Tom Peters’ Career Survival Guide.”

Tom states (Tom!)…. “Tom Peters (TJPET@aol.com) is the world’s leading brand…” Cool. You know, most people don’t really have time to figure you out so go ahead and tell them that you are the guru. It works. Here is what I say (I say!) on my (as in this) website: “I Am The Most Experienced Business Development Consultant.” It works (and it is true.) There…. I just personal branded. Back in the day, I studied Tom peters, read his books and watched his presentations. Look him up, you’ll see what I mean.

Oh, just in case you don’t remember 1997, note in the statment that Tom had an AOL email address and created CD-ROM’s.

Back To Personal Branding – Actually, The Art Of Personal Branding

I will not get too deep into the concept of how to do the nuts & bolts of personal branding because there is a very good chance that you do that and Google will return 11 million results on the subject. Plus, you probably already use one or more of the following tools to get your brand out there. Or, should.

A blog (if you know how to use keywords, have something to add to the conversation and write decent English)
LinkedIn (your profile, groups, and publishing)
Facebook (your profile and advertising)
Instagram (image marketing)
Twitter (yes, it still works)
Snapchat (people won’t remember your inanity)
Pinterest (amazing what people search on)
Medium (borrowed reach)
Slideshare (an underused platform)
Commenting (presence)
Guest posting (seriously borrowed reach)
Recommendations and referrals (ask for them)
Awards (third party endorsement)
Buffer (efficiency)
Buzzsumo (more efficiency)
Word of mouth (yup, that old thing works too)

Margo: The Art Of Her Branding Is In The Execution – Not Just The Tools

All of these tools are nice. But, as is always the case, the devil is in the details. Here are the details of a personal brand I found (actually it found me) yesterday.

I have some bad habits. Instead of waking up and immediately studying Spanish (I now live in Mexico), I turn on my iPad and read my business email. So there I am in my bed (too much info?) with my iPad and I see an email from Medium that points me to… “How The Best Marketers Read Minds. How to hear the unspoken stories your customers tell themselves.” I read it. It’s an excellent take on marketing and messaging. It is very current. You should read it.

I then go, “Huh, who wrote this?” I click on Margo Aaron’s byline, I see this: “I write about the dubious underbelly of marketing and other lighthearted topics at www.thatseemsimportant.com.” I like the name of the website. I like the idea of reading about the “dubious underbelly.” I like Margo’s attitude.

I then go to Margo’s That Seems Important website. I find the following:

She points out that she is a ginger and is cute (my interpretation.) Just to be clear, I would have also thought that if it had been a cute guy like Domhnall Gleeson.

She has a sense of humor: The top of the home page visual says, “They say if I have a photo here it will increase my conversion rates.” Take that SEO / SEM folks.

She asks me to join her email list via this, “Please join this list so it’s not just my mom.” More humor.

I go to the About page and read her bio. Nice track.

Then I take her up on this… “If you’d like to “pick my brain” you can do so here.” Of course, I go. “Pick my brain” kinda reminds me of my Corleone Offer.

I arrive at a Clarity page where I can buy her time for $4.17 / minute. I see a couple of reviews like this…

Margo is a rock star. I gained more insights from a one-hour conversation with her than I would have in weeks of fumbling around with the marketing for my coaching service.

She has a rare acumen for asking the right questions to understand you and your offer and then translating that into a captivating marketing strategy.

The value I received from the call far exceeds her rate. If she’s amenable to helping you, don’t hesitate to work with her.

I think, sure I’ll call her.

My Point? Margo Seriously Branded Herself.

How?

Marketing – Margo introduced me to her via a broad reach vehicle – Medium. Somehow she got Medium to get her into my email.

Persona – Her branding delivered a smart, funny persona. Not a me-to list of attributes. She is likeable.

Smart – She writes very well on subject that should be of interest to you.

Sales funnel – She funneled me to her bio.

Sold – She further funneled me to her advice site.

Margot did all of this in a way I call – Unignorable.

You?

You can do this too. This is particularly important if you run an ad agency. Here’s an example…

Gary Vaynerchuk. Gary has done a masterful job of self-branding. I am sure you know his story. From wine shop to YouTube star to building the fastest growing ad agency in the universe (Gary’s ~~words~~ thought.)

His secret… He used marketing; a unique compelling persona; he’s smart and makes damn sure you know it; he funnels you into his books and speeches and if you are a client, into his agency. He is not timid. He has sold you. His brand sold you.

Does your brand sell your agency?

Surprise: Inbound Marketing Works

Peter · March 1, 2017 · Leave a Comment

Inbound Marketing Works

Some inbound marketing tips about half way down. But, ya know, I just gotta start with a story.

OK, no big surprise here… I just have to say it. Inbound marketing does work. Why am I bringing up this subject that you probably think about every day? Because I have been starting to see some thinking that the overabundance of marketing content and SEO activity, especially in your B2B space (I am talking about advertising agency business development), is reducing the effectiveness of inbound. Well, it is. In fact, all forms of marketing appear to be less effective for the average marketer. But, here is the deal. A hefty segment of inbound marketers are clearly winning. They are winning because of their strategic approach, well-targeted tactics and, most importantly, how they execute. The winners use both best practices and the objective of being unignorable.

Some background.

My wife and I are building a house down here in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. It will kinda look like the photo on the left – more windows and a different color. Click on the link to see why we moved down here and how (yes, I know that some of you have thought about leaving the USA too — shhhh, I won’t tell). As new house builders and ones that will need to purchase a bunch of furniture because we totally downsized when we left Portland OR last July, we need some new stuff. This got me thinking that I’d rather have people like you buy my services and send me cash vs. simply raiding my savings. Therefore, I ramped up my inbound marketing about a month ago to slightly increase my leads. Because, yes you know this is coming… Inbound works.

The Inbound Marketing Switch

Over the past four weeks, I’ve gotten inbound leads from advertising agencies in Sweden, Dubai, Adelaide, Botswana, San Jose, San Francisco, Seattle, Atlanta, and Toledo. I’ve even gotten incoming from multi-national networks.

I got these seemingly random, but very hot global leads because I flipped the inbound switch. A switch I found in 1995.

I have been doing social media and inbound marketing since the mid-90’s. Without getting into great detail, my first web business was New Jersey Online, a very early news website. We used social media in the form of viewer forums about New Jersey and New York sports (the Giants, Jets, Knicks, Nets, Islanders, Rangers and Devils, oh and the Yankees and Mets) and all the local kid’s sports teams and entertainment to capture the attention of a huge audience. We added daily content from four news sources (they were called newspapers). We grew an audience that was even larger than the New York Time’s website (I love saying this.) We won the New Jersey / New York metro battle by using social media, the power of sharing and… inbound marketing.

Back To Today

Here are the the switches I’ve thrown since January. No, no secrets here. It is just about execution and online sales pressure. I offer these as a reminder that targeted inbound marketing activity begets sales lead activity.

I’ve been posting more often. Some are long posts repurposed from other thought-leadership platforms I’ve used.
I’ve been amplifying and reposting my current and past best read posts beyond my website via my newsletter, linkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.
I agreed to speak at my client Hannapin Marketing’s big Los Angeles PPC Hero Conference. They have promoted me.
Because of the speaking gig, I was interviewed by Paul Wicker of the super-smart ad tech company ADSTAGE.
A very large multi-office agency (one I am going to give a pitching seminar to) decided to tell all of their execs to buy my book on pitching and then get reimbursed. February was one of my best selling months. The book, actually an outbound strategy, gets the word out.
HubSpot is about to run another one of my guest posts and they just invited me to present on one of their large international webinars.

—–

So, my message is simple. Inbound activity works. Google likes it and they grant you better search positioning (FYI: it took Google less than an hour to crawl this page). Increased activity stimulates the readers of your emails, Facebook page, LinkedIn Followers and your groups. Stimulation with the right content to the right people delivers sales leads.

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And, since I know you like infographics, here is a crisp one from StraightNorth. As they say,”The Internet marketing lead generation ecosystem illustrates how all components fit together to form cohesive campaigns. It is intended to give marketing leaders a blueprint for building a complete Internet marketing strategy that maximizes sales lead generation.”

Podcast: 7 Tips for Ad Agency Professionals

Peter · February 24, 2017 · Leave a Comment

A Podcast Interview: My 7 Marketing Tips For Ad Agency Professionals

I’ve discussed the great value of guest posting in earlier blog posts. The primary advantage is that you get your post and thinking out to a much larger audience than you would get by just posting on your company website.

Another way to get your message out there is to be interviewed by a company that is interested in what you have to say. In a recent case, I was interviewed by Paul Wicker of the super-smart ad tech company ADSTAGE. Here is how they describe their marketing platform. Cross-channel campaign creation and performance in seconds

Identical Workflows for Cross-Network Campaign Creation

Create campaigns faster with a simplified and seamless flow across Google, Bing, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter Ads. We support the most popular ad formats on each network so you can make most sense for your online ad campaigns.

Bottomline is that they can help you to better manage your multi-platform campaigns…. and isn’t that a very nice thing.

My PPC Show Interview

You can listen to the PPC Show interview and see the synopsis right here on ADSTAGE’s website. Below are a couple of the more (if I do say so myself) salient points… If you have been reading my blog, you know that these are two of my major business development recommendations.

“We’re in a world where specialization wins.” If you’re looking to start your own agency, know that clients are looking for specialists. We’re no longer in the grand old days where agencies were either television, print, or radio. Know your specialty and make sure clients know it, too.
“Your website HAS to be a sales tool.” So many agencies fall into the trap of turning their websites into fun, creative projects or brochures. While that’s all well and good, if your website is not set up to make a sale, then it’s not doing much for you. Sales is a 24-7 game now and your website is doing a lot of that work for you. Make sure it’s set up that way.

I hope you enjoy the interview. And, don’t forget to take a look at ADSTAGE’s ad tech tools and dashboard. I love dashboards…

6 Business Development Referral Strategies

Peter · February 18, 2017 · 1 Comment

6 Business Development Referral Strategies To Get, Well, You Know

Most of the advertising agencies that take me up on my Corleone Offer usually tell me that the majority of their client base growth comes from a positive client, friends, and family business development referral.

Perfect! A referral is a VERY hot lead.

However, for way too many agencies, referrals are a default sales tool. They get most of their new clients via referrals because they are not doing other forms of hard core sales. Simply put, they do not have a tight manageable sales plan that includes both in and outbound marketing.

But, the issue of the paucity of sound agency sales plans is another story. This post is all about how to goose referrals so you get all of the ones your agency deserves.

The secret? Be proactive… Ask and ye shall receive.

Referral Strategies

A key to having a robust referral strategy is to make sure that your current clients are aware that you actually want referrals. Referrals from happy customers are one of best ways that B2B companies generate new business. OK, this isn’t a huge surprise. However, what is surprising how few companies have a dedicated strategy for fostering these valuable personal hand-offs.

4 Obvious, Yet Wonderful Benefits Of A Referral

A referral is a white-hot lead. If we assume that your happy customers are savvy enough to recommend you to the right potential customer then you are well on your way to establishing a valuable conversation and a new business win.

The closing ratio of referrals is higher (it has been reported that the closing-ratio of a referral is 6 times greater than an unqualified lead.)

For the obvious reason that a referred prospect is generally a very motivated buyer, the referral-generated sales cycle can be as much as 75% shorter.

A referral strategy is cost-effective and will reduce your sales expenditures – free is good. Free is a great place to start.

6 Effective ‘Active’ Referral Strategies

I’ve generated referrals from existing clients and customers using the following set of strategies. Given the fact that you are talking to happy customers or friends, these strategies will be a very efficient use of your “sales” effort.

Start with an objective. Know what increase in referrals you are targeting and what type of clients you want. Unqualified referrals are not a good thing.
Determine which of your clients or friends, these could be people you talk with or people you stay in touch with on social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter are contacts that might know the people or businesses on your prospect list. Do the research to help your clients help you.
Go ahead… ask for referrals. Some referrals come because your client or buddy is specifically asked if they know of a good company in a your business category. Some come because your customers love you so much they actively ‘sell’ you. Some need to be stimulated to think about how to help you. It’s OK to ask. It is also wise to let them know what type of referral you are looking for. Take away as much guess work as you can. Make it easy for them to refer you. But, do not overdo it. Clearly, you do not what your clients to feel burdened.
However, before you ask, make sure that your current clients are motivated to refer your service or products. I’ve written about how to determine which of your clients might be referral magnets. Check out: Is Your Agency Loved?
You might need a bit of time to massage your clients through the delivery of unexpected services ahead of directly asking for their help. As they say, give and ye shall receive.
A big must. If you get a referral, make sure that you keep the referrer informed about your conversations and any progress. Don’t forget to say thank you. If you actually win new business, you might want to consider sending a gift as follow-up.

Referrals are nice, but one eventually runs out of friends with friends. How to deal with this unfortunate fact? Have a broader sales plan.