Marketing Sins and Solutions

Blogoshere forgive me for I have sinned.  It has been 16 days since my last post.  I have lots of excuses, but no real reasons, and my non-posting sin has taken me away from the gods of the blog community, and for that I am truly sorry.

Non-Habits from Hell

If only a quick confession could make the sin of inconsistency better.  The first step is always admitting the problem, but the next steps – for those of us who suffer from the sin of non-habit, the consequences are their own punishment.

Bad marketing habits can hurt, but non-habits or inconsistencies in your marketing behavior can kill you.

So, for our penance, let’s outline a series of marketing sins and solutions that we can use to regain favor with clients and communities.

Use Daily Strategic Planning Sessions to Focus on Your Signature Strength

Who has time for meditation and thinking when you have a breakfast meeting at 7:00am, client meeting across town at 9:30 and a family to get out the door that’s running late because of a late evening event or game the previous night?  Few of us do.  But the successful ones, make the time to do this valuable step.

Spend the first 15 minutes of your day thinking and writing about your business, your vision for the business and your vision for yourself.  This may seem corny to those of you in the "harder" industrial sectors, but I can’t emphasize enough how critical it is to first put yourself in a focused frame of mind, then get your management team to do the same for themselves and for their teams.

Here are a few suggestions on how to do this quick and dirty daily strat plan.

1. What is my company all about?  What is it that we do better than anyone else?  Why do our clients and customers love us?  What are we in business to do?  What’s the passion of this business?  If we’re not doing……, then we’re not making money.
2. What activities absolutely, positively, HAVE to be done today, or really bad things will happen?  What activities, if left un-done, will undermine who we are, what we do, and why our customers choose us in the first place. Who do I need to contact to make sure they get done.
3. In what ways can I do these activities to promote our strengths to our customers?  What are some cool, inventive and creative ways that I can do these activities to show remind our customers of why they do business with us?
4. What is the one thing that I can do today to improve my customers’ experience with me and my company?

There you have it – 4 things to spend NO MORE than 15 minutes on – with yourself and with your teams.  Have this conversation every day and you’re guaranteed to make marketing magic.