Have you paid a visit to Planet SARK lately?

No, that’s not a weird, random sci-fi reference, although those of you who’ve met me know that I’m guilty of those from time to time. Planet SARK is a place of growth, renewal, creativity, exhuberance and yes, at times, just plain silliness.

On Planet SARK, there is a magic cottage of creativity where the great and mighty SARK herself goes to bask. A small toolshed that has been remade into a home, an office and yes, a source of inspiration. It is a place free of stress, where dreams grow wild and free, unfettered by the rules of this insignificant thing we call reality.

Unfettered by reality. Know what we used to call people who dared to throw aside the yoke of reality and bravely wander out into a creative new world? Nut jobs. Loonies. Psychopaths.

Daydreamers. Scandalous.

Friday is swiftly coming to a close, with the weekend to follow, so I’m not going to harp on the awesomeness of rejecting this reality. Instead, I’m going to task all you savvy printing and marketing and dreaming people with a mission this weekend.

When you get home tonight, I want you to find your cottage of creativity. It doesn’t have to be an actual cottage, as SARK’s is. Maybe it’s an office. A room. A quiet corner. A spot under a shady tree where you grab your notebook or colored pencils and while away a quiet summer’s afternoon.

Find a spot where you can let reality stop dragging you down and see how far your creativity can soar.

Tags: creativity, inspiration, marketing

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How much junk mail pops up in your mailbox each week?

I’m not talking about the carefully edited pile of mail your secretary lays on your desk every morning. Or the pile that mysteriously pops up from the mailroom the minute your back is turned.

I’m talking about the growing mountain of paper that you deal with every night when you get home, after the day is done, when you’re so tired you can barely see straight and your to-do list stretches long into the night.

It has long been my belief that the people who traditionally design direct mail campaigns are under the impression that people read their mail the way dedicated employees scan the morning blogs at work. They carefully wade through the muck to find the pearls buried beneath the swine.

What they forget is that when you’re a B2C company, consumers are looking at your direct mail on their own time. They’re not getting paid for this, so they’re under no obligation to give you the consideration you deserve.

Time to ramp up your A-game, ladies and gentlemen. Your direct mail marketing campaign isn’t doing you any good if it’s going straight into the recycling bin. With that in mind, here are a few ideas to make your direct mail pieces interesting enough to rescue them from a life of anonymity:

1)      Make them colorful. White envelopes fade into the background. Don’t be afraid to go with green, or yellow, or red-something that’s going to catch their eye and bring them in for a second look.

2)      Handwrite their address. Nobody takes the time for a personal touch anymore. My vehicular repair specialist always addresses their envelopes by hand. Not one of their mailings has ever gone unopened.

3)      Don’t buy into tricks like “highly confidential” or “open ASAP or else…”. This strategy worked great 15 years ago. Nowadays, if an envelope shows up marked highly confidential that didn’t come from my bank, my loan manager or my doctor’s office, it goes in the trash before another word gets read. I know I’m not the only one.

4)      Put your value proposition right on the front. “Annual Halloween Sale Starts 10/15!” “New Cars Are Finally Here!” Most people don’t launch a direct mail marketing campaign because they want to remind people they’re still alive. They’ve got something going on, something fresh, something new, and they want to make sure their customers know about it. Put that information front and center.

What are your best tips for getting your customers involved through direct mail marketing?

Tags: direct mail marketing, marketing

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School’s right around the corner. All that slacking you’ve done all summer? All those days you spent flying around by the seat of your pants? That’s done. Fin. Finis. Time to get back to living life by your to-do list and become the man with the plan.

If you’ve been coasting along on your old marketing plan until now, it’s time to toss that out the window and start thinking about what you want out of your marketing campaign for…2012.

Do you have a plan for 2012? Well, what are you waiting for?

Yep, that’s right. If the wheels aren’t already turning, it’s time to sit down with a pen and paper (or your Blackberry, or iPhone, or favorite iPad app, or whatever you’re doing your scheming on these days) and start making the preliminary sketches for where you want your business to go in 2012.

Making a Marketing Plan

Creating a marketing plan is a whole different ballgame from crafting your business plan. It’s easy to decide where you want your business to go, not nearly as easy to figure out how you’re going to get it from here to there.

Your marketing people should have a good handle on what’s next in this season’s lineup, but if you’re running a one man show (or just getting that show off the ground) here’s some food for thought:

1)      Who are you really marketing to this year? Do you have one key group of consumers? Two? Three? Don’t make the mistake of thinking all target groups are created equal.

2)      What new products and events do you have lined up for the coming year? Planning product launches now will save you acres of migraines later.

3)      Where do you plan to promote? It’s a no-brainer, I realize but it’s still well worth pointing out that B2B marketing and B2C marketing are completely different ballgames in the marketing arena-not just where you promote, but how.

A quick side note. Don’t prep your promo materials until you know EXACTLY who’s going to be looking at them. The amount of material I read geared toward professionals that sounds like it was written for my five year old, and vice versa, is enough to make me want to spend an hour or two banging my head into the wall.

4)      What specials/promos do you plan to run in the coming year? This is HUGE in terms of your marketing plan, so sit down and figure that out now while you have the chance.

The new year’s a whole lot closer than you think it is. What are you doing to make sure you’re ready for it all?

Tags: Business, business plan, marketing, marketing plan

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“No honey, we can’t get business cards for the cats!”

Mantra: I will capitalize on my personal brand, I will...ohhhh, squeaky mice!

These words cheerfully greeted me from my computer screen when I staggered out of bed to check up on what happened on Twitter last night. The first thing I did was laugh (really, really hard) at the mental picture of what my three furry feline monsters would do if I handed them a stack of business cards. Tooth marks would definitely mark them as theirs!

The second thing I did was scroll down the screen. Apparently, cats aren’t the only ones dipping their feet in the business card pool. There were dozens of posts featuring creative card ideas and clever new swings.

Then there was the woman who suggested exchanging mommy business cards should be standard etiquette for play dates. This one stopped me in my tracks. Business cards? When my kids were little, contact information for other moms was scrawled on napkins or paper doilies and slapped up on the fridge. I found the concept of entire business cards with the name of the mother and child and their contact information laid neatly out both intriguing and oddly frightening.

Once upon a time, business cards were reserved for salesmen and high level executives. Now we’re seeing them everywhere, from mommy bloggers to job seeking college kids. Cats might be a new one, but somehow I don’t doubt that there are a number of show pooches out there with their own calling cards, carefully cultivating their personal brand.

So let me ask you this. How far is too far when it comes to promoting your personal brand? Is the easy availability of business cards leading us to overdo it, or are we just seeing the newest trend? Will business cards soon become as commonplace as cell phones? What do you think?

Tags: Branding, business cards, marketing, personal branding, printing

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The best thing about summer is, for me, the amount of it I get to spend out on the road. I LOVE to travel, to scope out new sights, to visit family I haven’t seen in forever. Last week we took a road trip to see my parents out in Connecticut (and pick up a very excellent tan) and I was sharply reminded of the one part of road trips I don’t like.
Getting lost.

What ho, you say? If I could follow directions I wouldn’t lose hours driving around in the middle of nowhere looking for my turn? If I got a GPS, I wouldn’t be stuck sitting there staring at a tiny atlas with poorly marked roads? You’re probably right. But where’s the fun in that???
On this last roadtrip, I saw something I’d never seen before. The Interstate bridge was closed to traffic while they did roadwork. (You know the one about the three seasons in the Northeast, right? Snow, Snow and Road Work? Oh, so true…) Now, usually this would mean there was a well-marked detour that would eventually get you where you wanted to go, even if it took a few extra minutes along the way.
There were a few extra minutes involved, all right. Let me tell you what there wasn’t. A well-marked start of this detour. As a matter of fact, there wasn’t a well-marked anything anywhere on this detour. After about fifteen minutes of driving, followed by another fifteen minutes of staring aimlessly at the atlas trying to figure out how I was going to get across the Hudson River without having to swim, I had to use my phone-a-friend option to grovel someone into opening up Google Maps and figuring out how to get us out of there!
It’s funny how many similarities I could draw to business out of this. Because it’s easy to get lost along the way when you’re building a company, or planning a marketing campaign, or plotting out a new product launch. And sometimes, the tools we have to determine whether our next plan is going to pass or fail just plain aren’t up to the job. So we have to phone a friend, one that’s either already traveled that route or who has newer tools and technology that can help us find our way.

But what do you do when you’re at that unmarked detour and you can’t quite work up any genuine desire to admit to your friend that you can’t do it? That you need help? This is what gums up the works for many businesses, who wouldn’t’ find themselves in the predicaments they find themselves in if they’d look around and think, this is how they did it. Maybe they can help me do it better. Instead of, “I’m goin to close my eyes and guess, then see what happens next.”

Pick up a phone. Phone a friend. And leave that pride behind.

Tags: Business, directions, maps, marketing

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What sets a business apart? Seriously? Awesome products? Well, yeah. A fun, unique approach to their industry? Of course. But you know why consumers are still doing business with little mom and pop shops when there’s a major supplier of just about everything out there, and the Internet is available to conveniently bring it to them? Because they take the time to turn their heads from product development and where they want to go and make the most of where they are.

I think a lot of us fall into the trap of losing sight of the balance between where we are and where we’re going. If you’re a big business, you’ve got a whole team of people whose sole job is to come up with awesome new ideas to keep your business moving into the future. If you’re a small business like us, however, you have to split your resources. You have to divide your day between taking care of the customers you have now and the customers you’re going to have tomorrow, and if you think a bunch of customers that don’t even exist yet aren’t going to take up a whole lot of your time, you’ve got another think coming.

So how do you make sure your customers are satisfied without digging your business into a rut you can’t get out of? I have three words for you: Marketing, and Time Management.

Set aside a certain number of hours each week to plan for the future of your business. Those can be hours spent out in the field, talking to your customers and getting a feel for what they want and expect from you, or hours spent in your office brainstorming ideas and/or implementing ideas you’ve already put into place. Once you have that idea, kick it over to your marketing and development people and let it go. Let it breathe. Let it take shape. And let it transform.

Once that time is done, turn your attention to your business today. Get to know your customers, they love being recognized when they walk in the door. Figure out what you can do to make their customer experience better right now. A coffee pot on a cold winter day? Cookies and candy bowls at Christmas?

Yes, I’m a compulsive feeder. The kids in my neighborhood swarm at my house like little locusts because my cookie jar is never empty. Which is exactly my point. When you’re planning Christmas dinner but your cookie jar is empty, your place is going to be packed on Christmas day and empty the other 364 days of the year. Keep that cookie jar full, and make sure you’re taking the time to appreciate where you are, and the people who love you now, as well as where you’re going to be.

Tags: Business, customer service, marketing, moving forward in business

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How many times have you caught yourself walking around the singing, “I’m the Map, I’m the Map, I’m the Map, I’m the Map” for hours on end after that morning’s episode of Dora the Explorer? That cheerful, repetitive voice can play over and over in your head, all day long. The next time you’re in the toy store, you’re going to look at Map and know not only who he is, but his theme song as well. And if you can make it through the day without singing, “Forest, mountain, little blue tree!” you’re stronger than I am.

That’s marketing that works.

Amazingly enough, that same catchy tune and repetitive theme works on adults too. There’s a reason kids learn faster than grown-ups do. Not only are their minds blank slates, absorbing everything around them without  any of the prejudices, back-stories or pre-conceived notions that adults bring to the table every time they learn something new, they also learn it the right way. In relation to their natural world, with constant repetition to reinforce the idea and create an actual neural pathway into their brain.

Adults learn like that too. Tell me you saw the State Farm Cars 2 commercial. It’s fantastic. Not only does it have fun, colorful characters that most of us know and remember (I have a Finn McMissile car taped to my dashboard as we speak), but every adult in America had to fight the urge to sing, “Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there!” Why? Because constant repetition and a cheerful tune have burned the company’s catchphrase into our brains, and now? Now there’s no going back.

How does your marketing campaign use repetition and those childhood ways to reach your clientele?

Tags: Business, marketing

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Do you like it when people take your words and post them for the world to see without bothering to tell you about it? Of course you don’t. Nobody does. So why are so many companies doing it?

Later on, we’ll talk about why companies make up testimonials for their customers-and why it’s a really bad idea. The whole point of printing testimonials is, after all, to provide your customers with an honest look at the products and services you provide. Today, let’s take a look at the second step in that process-the unwritten rules of etiquette for obtaining those testimonials in the first place.

Everyone loves to talk. You just have to be willing to listen.

How often do you actually get testimonials from your customers? Sometimes? Always? Once or twice a year?

Here’s a news flash for you. Customers LOVE to talk about their experiences. They’ll talk about them over breakfast. They’ll talk about them over lunch. They’ll talk about them at the water cooler.

If your customers aren’t telling you about their experiences, it’s probably because you’re not giving them a chance. Asking “How did everything go?” is begging to be told, “Fine” as they complete their visit and walk away. Offer comment forms. Ask what the best part of their visit was. Put a pad on your front counter and invite them to write a comment on their way out, or drop it anonymously into a comment box.

Social Media is the Best Source for Obtaining Testimonials You’ll Ever Find

Want to know what your customers think about your business? Take a cruise through Facebook and Twitter. They’re out there, and they’re talking. This is a great way to find out what customers really think.

But…

Ask Before You Post/Print

Before you printing testimonials, or posting them on your website, don’t forget to ask the customer in question if they’re okay with their words going public. Most are going to say yes, but every once in a while you’ll get someone who for one reason or another wants to keep the fact that they’re doing business with you just between you. Printing their testimonials without their permission can permanently damage a beautifully budding relationship.

And…

Consider Keeping Testimonials Anonymous

This is a tricky area for most companies, so it’s really up to you and your customers which way you want to go. Printing the customer’s full name will go a long way toward convincing future customers that you’re not making this stuff up; however, it also eliminates any privacy between you and your clientele. Some will be okay with that. Some will not.

There’s another perk to keeping testimonials anonymous, especially when you’re working in the B2B arena. If you print a testimonial that gives the company name and the name of your contact, you’ve just handed your competition a list of your clientele. You didn’t really mean to do that, did you?

I didn’t think so.

When done right, printing testimonials goes a long way toward giving your business the authentic reputation it deserves. How are you making testimonials work for you?

Tags: Business, direct mail marketing, marketing, printing, testimonials

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Remember when being able to put “skilled multi-tasker” on your resume was a good thing? Guess what? Science has finally proven what most of us have known (or at least suspected) for a while now. Multi-tasking kills your ability to actually get anything done!

Okay, granted, that’s not entirely true. I can reset a router while talking on the phone and pulling a mouse on a string for Office Cat. No problem. What I can’t do is write this blog post while talking on the phone, checking my email, eating Chex Mix, talking to the guy next door and keeping an eye on your error messages. Guess what’s not going to get done?

Two hands. One brain. There's a reason for that.

Right. Writing this blog.

Focus

When you’re doing multiple things at once, you’re not really paying attention to any of them. When you’re doing four things, each of those things only gets a quarter of your attention. Do you really think your boss wants a quarter of your attention to be on the presentation they have to give tomorrow?

I don’t think so. If they did, there’d be a lot more World of Warcraft allowed in the workplace.

Time

Jobs done in tangent with other jobs intrinsically take longer, because they don’t have your complete attention. That means that while it might have taken you five minutes to check your email at the beginning of the day, it’s going to take you the better part of 20 while you’re on the phone. And as mentinged in the article link above, it can take 15 minutes or longer to get back on-task after wandering off to answer one little email!

Multi-tasking is taking up time that you don’t have.

The moral of this story? If you really want to maximize productivity, forget everything you ever learned about multi-tasking. Go back to the good old days of doing one thing at a time unless you absolutely, positively have no other choice. You’ll be impressed with what it does for your mental health, your team will be impressed by what it does for the quality of your work. It’s a win/win situation all the way around.

Are you a chronic multi-tasker? What’s your take on the idea that continued multi-tasking can actually deteriorate your ability to concentrate on one thing at a time? 

Just tuning in? Don’t forget to join us for Part 1: Power-Up Your Morning , Part 2: Learning to Start Your Day Early and Part 3: Where Do You Start?

Tags: be more productive, Business, increasing productivity, marketing, multitasking, productivity

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When I first started writing this post, I had every intention of calling it “Learning to Get Out of Bed”. Because really, isn’t that big, warm, soft, comfortable bed the biggest obstacle you face when it comes to  maximizing your productivity by starting your day early?

Then I heard the melodious sound of my roommate’s shower running at noon and realized that no, no it’s not. Just getting out of bed in the morning isn’t enough to get your day started. (They’ve been up since seven.) You have to actually motivate yourself to step away from the email and the television, put down that cup of coffee and get moving.

But we’ll still start with learning to get out of bed!

Learning to Wake Up Early

For those of you who think training your body to get up early is just a matter of setting your alarm clock an hour early, I say…good luck. You’re going to need it.

Myth: Going to bed earlier will let you get more sleep so you can get up earlier.

In theory,going to bed early works great. After eight hours of sleep, you wake up bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and ready to go, right? Problem is, if you’re used to going to bed at midnight and you try and go to sleep at seven, guess what’s going to happen?

You’re going to lay there for 3-4 hours before you finally fall asleep.

Your body needs different amounts of sleep to recharge, so here’s what experts suggest. Go to bed when you’re sleepy (but not overtired), then get up at the same time. Every day. And no matter how tired you still are, you have to drag yourself out of bed when the alarm goes off. If you tend to sleep through your alarm, get one of the annoying buzzing ones that put an earthquake to shame. If you constantly hit “Snooze” get something like Clocky the Moving Alarm clock to make you get out of bed.

Whatever you do, don’t leave your clock where you can reach it without having to get up. You’ll slap it off in your sleep, and it’s all downhill from there.  

Getting Started Once You’re Up

Avoid staring at the computer screen when you're still a shadow of your bright-eyed, bushy-tailed self.

Getting out of bed is half the challenge. The other is to motivate yourself to get started once you’re up. Word of advice: Don’t check your email, surf the web or hit social media sites while you drink your morning coffee. An intended fifteen minute coffee break can easily turn into 3-4 lost hours if you’re not very, very careful.

Instead, get out of bed, exercise (even if it’s just a ten minute walk around the block), and head straight into the shower. Even if you’re working from home, make yourself get a shower and get dressed. This cues your brain into the fact that it’s time for the day to start. Grab coffee and breakfast, and sit down to eat without getting sucked into any other activities. I find this is a good time to make my to-do list for the day so I know where to get started.

As soon as your breakfast is done, put your plates in the sink and get started on the first item on your list. It should all roll up from there.

Having trouble sticking to your to-do list? Try tackling it 20 minutes at a time! Tune in to Part 3 to learn how to prioritize your to-do list…and why you’re probably doing it wrong.

Tags: Business, marketing, maximizing productivity, productivity

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