Words That Work

Small Business + Internet = Marketing Miracle

I know you are busy, but pause for a moment and consider the miraculous history of marketing and branding for business, because I think it is going to help you.  The very first Internet domain name was registered just 27 years ago in 1985, by a company called Symbolics.com.

ARPANET, which came online in 1969, was its grandfather,  connecting large computers at four universities in California and Utah; it was only used by computer experts, engineers, scientists, and librarians. By 1972, ARPANET users had a form of email, and file sharing in 1973. ARPANET expanded and inspired other networks over the next decade as more and more academic and government institutions developed and adopted this networking technology.

Each had a string of numbers as their address which were hard to remember and update if the site moved to a different IP — Internet Protocol — address.  So domain names like maggieanderson.com were a BIG advance.  Associating IPs with a domain name made it easier for people to memorize, and changing the  location of a site only required changing the numerical address associated with that name -- the name remained the same and the internet address could become part of the company's brand. The early domains were tech companies like IBM, Intel, Sun Microsystems, and Hewlett-Packard.

Here's a startling timeline: In 1985, only six companies held .com domains. By 1992, there were fewer than 15,000. In 2010, there were 84 million separate domains, pouring $1.5 trillion USD into the global economy.

Less than three decades ago only large technology companies and research universities could afford the investment in internet technology.  Today one third of people across the globe -- including the remotest corners of the Outback, the Andes mountains, the poorest African villages, seldom visited islands of the Pacific -- one third of all people in the entire world, over 2 billion,  use the Internet, could obtain a domain name and begin their own company marketing their products and services for minimal cost over the internet. The "glass half empty" types will see this as competition run amuck, of course.  But if you are in the "glass half full" camp it signals an opportunity for global prosperity that lifts all boats.

To put the astounding development in marketing communications the internet provides in perspective...

In 1041, movable clay type was first invented in China.  Over four hundred years later in 1450 Johannes Gutenberg made his first printing press, and print completely dominated communication for the next 500 years, until radio and television began to capture viewers' attention.  I grew up a couple of miles from the   KDKA Radio tower East of Pittsburgh which was the first radio station to play music over airwaves on November 2, 1920.  The first television program?  Hit the airwaves in July 1941.  In the 900 years from 1041 to 1941, anyone who owned a business and wanted to promote it in any of these media -- print, radio or tv -- had to be doing quite well, because the cost of these technologies was high. Marketing communications took a significant percentage of revenue.

By contrast, the internet took less than 30 years to expand access to its vast communication network from exclusively well-funded corporations and universities to any entreprising individual operating from their basement or kitchen table, gondola, thatched hut or yurt. 

If you don't feel you are fully leveraging the marketing miracle of the internet -- with a Website, blog, social media and email platform -- I'd love the opportunity to spend a day with you to come up with a strategy for how to boost your brand visibility.  My VIP One Day is designed to help you clarify your niche,  capture attention and come away with a strategic plan to bring in your ideal prospects.  If you are doing fine, I'll be honored if you pass on my information to an entrepreneur or executive who could use a short-term partner to bring new perspective to their branding or marketing.

About the Author:

If you are ready to take your business vision to the next level, let Maggie Anderson Words That Work help you look at all the new media marketing solutions for small business today and become more visible and credible as a leader in your industry.   Maggie Anderson  is a communications coach and marketing expert and provides simple, step-by-step programs for small business executives and professionals, coaches and consultants.  She helps you find effective communication strategies to develop your personal or company brand, stand out and attract more opportunities using social media, blogs, Web content, speechwriting and presentations, white papers and other effective communication tools.

Or Do It Yourself with her Marketing Kit for Experts that shows you how:

 

 

 

 

 

Over 55? You've Got the Small Business Edge!

Ah spring is here!  We're outdoors and more active... with renewed energy... and new optimism.  If you are over 55 you may not have bounced back yet from this recession, or you are happy to have a job that is paying much less than what you were making.  It's a good idea to remember that your personal resources are no less than they were when you successfully landed just the right job or client.  It's more of a challenge now, hard to maintain your balance and optimism?  Maybe, but your strengths are still there, and undiminished.  It's only your perspective, the thoughts you wake up with and carry through the day,  that create hurdles to soaring.  Here's something I hope will boost your optimism from a recent article in the Harvard Business Review:

...for 11 of the 15 years between 1996 and 2010, Americans between the ages of 55 and 64 had the highest rate of entrepreneurial activity of any age group. The National Journal reports that 9 of the nation's 15 million small-business owners were born before 1965.

These findings fit another area of research as well, which shows that creativity and innovation spike for many in later life. In his study of artists, University of Chicago economist David Galenson has shown that genius clusters into two categories. Conceptual geniuses tend to do their best work while young, producing breakthrough ideas early in their careers. But experimental geniuses, by contrast, need a long period of time to reach their peak, moving forward by trial and error, slowly accumulating the elements that will be integrated into their fully realized work.

Why Older Entrepreneurs Have an Edge - Marc Freedman - Harvard Business Review  via blogs.hbr.org

So, unless you are one of those boy or girl geniuses like Mozart who completed a magnum opus in your 20's, you've got the edge.  Get back out there and find it.

Wishing you your best work yet...  Maggie

 

About the Author:

If you are ready to take your business vision to the next level, let Maggie Anderson Words That Work help you look at all the new media marketing solutions for small business today and become more visible and credible as a leader in your industry.   Maggie Anderson  is a communications coach and marketing expert and provides simple, step-by-step programs for small business executives and professionals, coaches and consultants.  She helps you find effective communication strategies to develop your personal or company brand, stand out and attract more opportunities using social media, blogs, Web content, speechwriting and presentations, white papers and other effective communication tools.

Or Do It Yourself with her Marketing Kit for Experts that shows you how:

 

 

 

David Petraeus on Optimism

"A pessimist sees a challenge in every opportunity; an optimist sees an opportunity with every challenge."  This is one of General David Petraeus' favorite Churchill quotes.

Petraeus has an indefatigably positive attitude, and he lives this admonition to others: give energy – don’t be an "oxygen thief" – doing so through praise and encouragement, mentoring and example, all the while ensuring that he conveys forthright assessments and reports to those above and below.

The mantras he uses in his counterinsurgency guidance are also useful: live our values; be the first with the truth; in the absence of guidance, figure out what it should have been and execute aggressively.

These are values-oriented leadership principles for CEOs, line workers and even parents dealing with their own insurgents (toddlers) at home says Paula Broadwell, author of All In: The Education of General David Petraeus, The New York Times bestselling biography about one of the most transformational military leaders of the past 20 years.

 

Quoted from Womenetics, February 16, 2012   http://www.womenetics.com/

How Ideo Revamped The Common Mattress For Sealy, And Made It Stand Out

An article in Fast Company revealed how Sealy revamped its business by changing old perceptions about its mattresses.  The challenges of this established brand are surprisingly similar to yours, and who knew the mattress factory could be a source for so many good ideas.

If you’ve ever walked into a mattress showrom, you know that the only way to buy a mattress is to lie down on it. For the most part, they all look the same--like flattened marshmallows.

That’s also your challenge, right?  How do you convince a customer to pay for a service before they see the difference you can make in their organization?  How do you differentiate your services from other firms like yours so you don't look like just another flattened marshmallow?  A client in a firm with very specialized insurance brought up the issue just this morning.  The word insurance is barely out of her mouth when she can see the listener start to glaze over, because they assume they know what she does. Bombarded as we all are with opportunities, we have to shut out as many as we can quickly, or be totally overwhelmed.  Sharpening your message is the key to cutting through those assumptions, to let people know what is different about what you offer and how it will solve a problem or a need they actually do have.  That message needs to build from a simple, clear beginning, with dime, not dollar words -- becoming more detailed and complex only when the listener signals what interests them.

The iconic design firm Ideo did a successful refresh of Sealy’s mattress collection. “Like a lot of solid, long-term brands, they eventually lost their drawing power,” says Michael Hendrix, an associate partner at Ideo’s Boston office.

Even great brands eventually lose momentum if they don't change to improve performance.  More importantly you have to consistently communicate what's new in a way that maintains a positive perception about what you do.  Having descriptions on your Website is not enough, even if they are well-worded. 

[Ideo added] extra features like a wraparound handle for easy lifting and a rubber surface on the bottom of the top mattress to grip sheets and keep them from creeping up over your feet. To further differentiate Posturepedic from the sea of mattresses in Sleepy’s, Ideo used color, a light blue for the foundation and white for the top comfort layer -- inspired by the classic light-blue men’s shirt, and white was chosen to evoke fluffy, fresh clouds.

Often we make the mistake of making big changes to stir things up, and don't put enough focus on the communication about them, and it needs to be the opposite.  If you can step back and look objectively at your self, your company, your services and products, the way Ideo did for Sealey, and make small refreshes that actually fill a need for customers, then doubly focus on the messaging, you'll have more visibility for less effort -- just what we all need for our non-stop working lives!!

In the end, a lot of the design work came down to figuring out ways to make the benefits visible to the consumer. “A mattress is kind of ironic: It’s a black box...” Hendrix says. “The key is to bring features into a bed that a customer can see to understand the value.”

Prospects see value through a lens of what they need.  They have their own problems to solve, and if your messaging speaks to their needs, and shows how you can provide a solution, suddenly you are no longer perceived as a flattened marshmallow, but a fluffy source of comfort -- and who doesn't love that? 

                If you would like to read the article in Fast Company you can find it here:   www.fastcodesign.com

 

About the Author:

If you are ready to take your business vision to the next level, let Maggie Anderson Words That Work help you look at all the new media marketing solutions for small business today and become more visible and credible as a leader in your industry.   Maggie Anderson  is a communications coach and marketing expert and provides simple, step-by-step programs for small business executives and professionals, coaches and consultants.  She helps you find effective communication strategies to develop your personal or company brand, stand out and attract more opportunities using social media, blogs, Web content, speechwriting and presentations, white papers and other effective communication tools.

Or Do It Yourself with her Marketing Kit for Experts that shows you how:

 

 

 

Turning Marketing Strategy Into Action

To me getting clear about strategy is the most important challenge business owners face ... John Jantsch said this in a recent post.  His Duct Tape Marketing blog is very practical, and so useful for Small Busines Marketing.  I say this in my blog and my programs, but John says it so well!  I’m going to challenge them first to look inward. I’m going to ask them to choose a marketing strategy that is infused with who they are, why they do what they do and how to use that story to attract opportunities and clients.

While every industry has a unique set of clients, a unique language, maybe even an unusual distribution model, the way that customers come to know, like and trust them is fundamentally the same.

John goes on to outline a core set of practices that every business can use to communicate their simple, clear, marketing strategy.

Build and tell stories –

Sell by teaching –

Become a platform –

Reverse the experience – this one is especially interesting to me.  It's worth looking at the whole article for this and other genuinely useful marketing ideas for small business.

To borrow from a well-worn bit of wisdom, if you want to deliver an exceptional experience you must start with the end in mind. You must begin the entire process by considering what you will do 90 or 180 days after you make a sale and then work backwards to the point where you first meet.

via www.ducttapemarketing.com

Enough is Enough! Get Control of Your Stuff

I hope your productivity is peaking as you start 2012 and this will be a great year for you!  If you could use a little help with organization, my colleague and friend, Wendy Ellin is offering at 4 pm Eastern TODAY, Tuesday 1/10/2012 a live (and free) tele-call: ‘Enough is Enough, Get Control of Your Stuff!’

Wendy told me today there are a ton of people registered, and I wanted to give you the opportunity to register and join in today at 4:00 pm ET (1:00 pm PT). You can get more details, plus check out a short video from:

http://wendyellin.com/enough-is-enough-call/

On this 60-minute tele-call, you’ll learn everything you need to take the productivity level in your business up several notches! It’s time you (and even your staff) get the life you want by focusing on the energy, the attitude and the efficiencies in your business.

Remember, Getting Organized is the #3 New Year’s Resolution behind #1 Losing Weight and #2 Quitting Smoking.   Don’t put it off -- take out 60 minutes to get started on getting organized now!

Best...  Maggie

P.S. Be sure to use Code: [MA1958] when you register, and if you know other friends, clients or colleagues who are looking to dramatically increase their productivity in 2012, feel free to forward to them or share with your network on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter. They’ll be glad you did!

Wabi Sabi Small Business Marketing Ideas

What's holding your business back?  Some days its cranky prospects and customers; occasionally it's employee, supply chain, or financing issues that get out of control -- but some days it's just YOU.  Successful executives, it is sometimes said, are motivated by a grandiose belief in their own abilities;  successful entrepreneurs, by a desire to prove their abilities to themselves and the world. 

Many great entrepreneurs come out of dysfunctional families, UC Berkeley's Lean Launch Pad  professor Steve Blank points out.  Their chaotic childhoods help them learn a resilience that works well in the chaos of a start-up:

Founding a company is a sheer act of will and tenacity in the face of immense skepticism from everyone, Blank says —investors, customers, friends, family, and employees, to name a few. The founder takes his or her vision of the opportunity—one only he/she may see...to execute against all rational odds ... product development and customer input collide, the facts change, the business model changes, and stuff happens.

Anyone who can’t manage chaos and uncertainty, isn’t totally oriented for action, and has no sense of urgency, is in the wrong business.

via www.inc.comDysfunctional Family? You'd Make a Great Entrepreneur | Inc.com

There's a downside when things start going well, though.  If you are energized by crises and uncertainty, success can seem boring.  You may not even recognize it when you come up with new ideas, or disrupt the smooth flow of your business, because chaos is your comfort zone.  Currently I'm watching one entrepreneur whose genius I've admired completely dissassemble a successful brand and head in a new direction.  In his wake is a tribe of loyal, committed customers scratching their heads wondering what services the company offers now and where do I fit?  A woman who has been extremely successful brokering national media for her organization advertises new services so often it's hard to tell which is what -- creating a paralyzing confusion for prospects and leaving existing subscribers in the dust.  Both are brilliant entrepreneurs who seem to be getting in the way of their own success because they don't think they are good enough, or growing fast enough.  As marketing strategies for small business, they seem disruptive.  Hopefully their brands and messages will get clear before their customers wander off.

Want to look at your own company in this light? Here are some questions to get your thinking started:  Look back at interactions with your employees or contractors -- are you allowing them to do their jobs, or micro-managing and getting in their way?  Do you hire experts to coach or advise you in areas that are not your expertise, then ignore or argue with their advice?  When things are rolling along smoothly, do you tend to come up with a new idea or new direction before your customers, contractors or employees are ready?  You might need a good dose of Wabi Sabi.

Wabi-sabi is a Japanese notion that beauty is not perfect. It is seeing the beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete -- modest and humble. It is a beauty of things unconventional... So what is Wabi Sabi for a small business?  Taking a deep breath, recognizing and accepting with humility your own imperfections and those of your team.  Seeing them as the right kind of imperfection, like asymmetry in a bowl that shows the handmade craftsmanship, instead of a perfect, but soul-less, machine-made bowl. Celebrating your successes with the team who helped you achieve them and dialing back on striving for the much more you think you "should" be achieving.  "Sabi" in Japanese, is the kind of beauty that can come only with age, such as the patina on an old bronze statue.  For you it means recognizing that building a business requires time -- 3-5 years say the retired C-level advisors at Score.  Discounting yourself, your support team and your business for not achieving great things within that first five years only drains away your momentum.  Whether you are a sole practitioner, leader of a large organization, or doing small home business marketing, Wabi Sabi is that balance point between keeping your operation energized and getting your anxieties and need to be seen as brilliant out of the way.

 

For more on Wabi Sabi look at:  Wabi-Sabi: For Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers, by Leonard Koren ISBN 1880656124

or http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WabiSabi

 

About the Author:

If you are ready to take your business vision to the next level, let Maggie Anderson Words That Work help you look at all the new media marketing solutions for small business today and become more visible and credible as a leader in your industry.   Maggie Anderson  is a communications coach and marketing expert and provides simple, step-by-step programs for small business executives and professionals, coaches and consultants.  She helps you find effective communication strategies to develop your personal or company brand, stand out and attract more opportunities using social media, blogs, Web content, speechwriting and presentations, white papers and other effective communication tools.

Or Do It Yourself with her Marketing Kit for Experts that shows you how:

 

 

 

Stillness: Source of New Ideas

The 17th century philosopher Blaise Pascal said:  all of man's problems come from his inability to sit quietly in a room alone.  And they didn't have internet, email or iPads back then!   Around this time of year there is usually a lot of energy around making lists and getting a fresh start and I wanted to make a different suggestion.  Schedule time to do nothing.  At Intel they scheduled engineers to have 4 hours of uninterrupted time every Tuesday morning just to hear themselves think -- and it was so unusual (apparently the usual is about 3 minutes of uninterrupted time) and had such an impact that at the end of the experiment the participants recommended extending it to everyone in the company.

I just returned from the longest getaway I've ever taken -- two weeks at a wonderfully quiet beach where there is almost nothing to do.  We had a partial excuse because we were having work done at our house, but I have to admit, I was lazy.  Having two weeks meant I didn't have to start right away "planning" how to enjoy my vacation.  I walked on the beach under brilliant blue skies -- only when I felt like it.  I listened to the waves, wrote, fell in love with the BBC series Doc Martin and read.  My family and I biked at a leisurely pace, played a lot of bananagrams and Settlers of Catan and tried out some interesting new recipes. 

You probably think I'm going to say something earth-shaking or deeply transforming happened.  It didn't.  I was finally able to help my husband start his blog, which has turned out to be even more amazing than I thought it would be.  I started two poems.  And he and I were able to reconnect in ways our crazy schedules don't usually allow.  What it did make me realize is that our usual pace is only possible in fast forward -- and that cuts way back on time for the human connections and the beautiful, satisfying and sustaining details of what we are experiencing.  Worst of all, it leaves no time for the solitary reflection that allows our imaginations to connect the dots of all those experiences and reframe them into the ideas & passions that keep us moving forward instead of running on our hamster wheels.  We tell ourselves you can do this, numb out everything so we can keep going, but get nowhere, then feel more pressure to do more to get ahead. Do you see how this can become a seriously vicious cycle?

Don't give in to the pressure that you "should" be making a new start this January.  If you believe there is something creative and valuable in you, find ways to be still this year and allow it to surface.

And if you think that sounds too airy-fairy for a serious, success-oriented business person, go ask Intel what were they thinking?

About the Author:

If you are ready to take your business vision to the next level, let Maggie Anderson Words That Work help you look at all the new media marketing solutions for small business today and become more visible and credible as a leader in your industry.   Maggie Anderson  is a communications coach and marketing expert and provides simple, step-by-step programs for small business executives and professionals, coaches and consultants.  She helps you find effective communication strategies to develop your personal or company brand, stand out and attract more opportunities using social media, blogs, Internet, speechwriting and presentations, white papers and other effective communication tools.

Or Do It Yourself with her Marketing Kit for Experts that shows you how:

 

 

 

 

 

Building A Brand That Breaks Through The Noise

Branding is a way to boost your visibility and help your small business marketing efforts produce more results.  As a small business marketing consultant I've noticed that entrepreneurs often hurt themselves by going too big or too small in their efforts to create a strong brand.  Branding is not an action -- it's a process.  It's not a big transformation you budget time and money for "when business picks up next year" but strength that builds gradually.  Regular and consistent steps that build credibility, appreciation and trust for your company, your products, your services is what builds a strong brand.  This article from David Brier at Fast Company has some insights about branding that are thought provoking.  I picked a few favorites -- find all nine by following the link below.  Looking for new marketing strategies for a small business or professional practise?  Pick one of these and use it as a lens to look at your brand -- what is one step you can take next week to strengthen it? 

_________________________

Every business owner and CEO has the right to a superior brand. One that's meaningful. Powerful. Long-lasting. Inspiring. And effective. Here is our 9-step program to building a brand that cuts through the noise: 

• We know there are thousands of ways to solve any problem and that the only valuable solutions are the effective ones. Doing something ineffective in half the time--or "more efficiently" or “more economically”--isn't progress, but is instead bad business.

• Social media isn't a brand strategy. Social media is a channel. While it’s important for a brand to develop something to say, it’s more important to create something that will be heard.

• Consumers and clients have a first moment when they discover a brand. It’s this defining moment that establishes expectation and perceived value. Delivering on that value will determine whether your company thrives or merely stumbles along.

• Brands that use clichés to promote their brand end up promoting their category, not their brand.

• Growth and brand dominance is created by having the highest brand value, not the lowest price tag. One can always sell something by offering the lowest price. But this does not create loyalty to your brand. Never did and never will. It only creates "loyalty" to that price point. As soon as your customer is offered a better price, he or she will jump ship, leaving you like a scorned lover in the middle of the night.

via www.fastcompany.com

 About Maggie Anderson Words That Work

We are small business marketing consultants with hands-on experience.  Maggie formed Words That Work after 20 years founding and operating her own communications business.  A registered corporate coach with the Worldwide Association of Business Coaches, Maggie and her team now help professionals and business owners discover strengths that make their company unique; claim a lucrative niche in the market and attract their ideal prospects.  Her book Do You Stand Out Enough? is a compact, step-by-step branding and marketing guide for consultants, coaches, professionals and entrepreneurs who want to spend more time doing what they are good at and less on marketing. Discover the marketing guide for experts here.

Excellence and Creativity at Work

I saw the amazing violinist Joshua Bell perform with the Symphony on Sunday, and was reminded how moving unself-conscious excellence can be.  Bell glides about the stage seemingly pulled and played by his violin rather than the other way around! Fully wrapped in music creation, he seems to give himself over to focus on the music with little on himself.  The result is a unique and moving sound.  How does this help your small business marketing efforts?  Stay with me and I promise a very short marketing course that I hope will spark some innovative ideas for you. There has never been a time when entrepreneurs had so many new media marketing solutions available, but as many of my clients complain, they do require work and constant creativity and innovation from us.

Joshua Bell's kind of deep, creative focus is satisfying for the player and for the audience who experiences his uplifting, regenerative performance. As I work with entrepreneurs on how to stand out, I help them differentiate their company by defining a niche based on their strengths and work they are passionate about. If they achieve that kind of full satisfaction for themselves they can more easily delight and engage their ideal prospects.  This analogy may seem like a stretch if you are putting out fires and racing to catch up all day at your desk.  I admit it is -- but wait a minute. Joshua Bell was playing full force -- if you follow your passion it's not that the the work is easy, but it is fully satisfying.  Look at these comments about the role of play, creativity and innovation at work from a world reknown American design firm, IDEO:

To me, play is what you're passionate about doing. You want to do it because it's enjoyable and you want to keep doing it because it brings you joy. But play is a ton of effort. ... The core difference we're trying to incorporate at IDEO is that play is part of the innovation process not just something you do when you roll out the ping pong tables ... it's about pushing the boundaries and discovering something.  (From Brendan Boyle and Joe Wilcox of the award-winning global design consultancy, IDEO)

Recently I spent a weekend writing poetry with John Fox.  He would read us a few poems, then pick a few lines as starters and give us the loosest of boundaries:  Where can you go with that?  What does that move in you?  And our group of would-be poets went off with trepidation and no ideas, but came back with bits of experience made into sometimes amazingly graceful lines of poetry. The day went by disappointingly fast.

One of the perks of being an entrepreneur is the freedom to innovate, create.  Please share some of your favorite ways to spark your own creativity.  How do you push your boundaries, add play or a deep creative focus to your day to innovate and improve performance?   Let us hear from you!

_________________________

If you are ready to take your business vision to the next level, let us help you look at all the new media marketing solutions for small business today and help you create more visibility and credibility as a leader in your industry.   Maggie Anderson  is a communications coach and marketing expert and provides simple, step-by-step programs for small business executives and professionals, coaches and consultants.  She helps you find effective communication strategies to develop your personal or company brand, stand out and attract more opportunities using social media, blogs, Internet, speechwriting and presentations, white papers and other effective communication tools.

Or DIY with the Marketing Kit for Experts that shows you how: