Monday Mornings with Madison

Category Archives:
Business Development

December 23, 2013

Storytelling = Marketing

Issue #309

According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, marketing is defined as “the activities that are involved in making people aware of a company’s products (or services) and making sure that the products (or services) are available to be bought.” Based on that definition, every employee is really engaged in activities that either make people aware of what the company is selling / providing or make sure it is available for purchase. Each employee is involved, in one way or another, with increasing awareness and availability of what is being sold. From an entry level clerk to the highest level of leadership, every person is involved in marketing their place of employ.

There are countless ‘marketing’ opportunities in the stories about what makes a company – any company — great. Every company has great stories about its products or services, its people, the ways that the company goes above and beyond, or the ways it helps the community. Every company has a multitude of stories, that when told strategically, have the power to convert lookers into buyers, prospects into customers, critics into fans, and one-time customers into loyal followers. A well-told, strategically-delivered story has the power to engage, encourage and enchant. You may wonder what story can the average worker have to tell and how can it be deployed strategically if the person doesn’t work in the marketing department or isn’t a great writer? You’d be surprised.
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December 16, 2013

Choosing the Right Employee Performance Review Method… or Methods

Issue #308

Every so often, the business world rethinks its methods for evaluating employee performance. Old approaches are replaced with new ones. Then, in time, those are tossed aside for yet newer methods of assessing worker efficiency, output, creativity, and attitude. Because employee performance is – by its very nature – tied to a company’s productivity and thus its bottom line and long-term success, methods for evaluating employee performance are constantly being considered and reconsidered… a pendulum swinging from one end of the spectrum to the other.

At one end of the scale are harsh assessment methods, such as the stack ranking approach that General Electric CEO Jack Welch employed in the 1980s. On the other end of the continuum is the “no evaluation” method in which employees are never formally evaluated at all. Between one extreme and the other, of course, are many strategies with varying degrees of rigor and results. If you’re wondering which method of performance reviews helps motivate and improve employee performance most, it depends. It helps to start by looking at what methods have failed or succeeded for other companies.
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November 25, 2013

The Marriage of PR and SEO

Issue #306

Thanks to Google’s Penguin and Panda algorithmic updates—two changes that have boosted the importance of editorial quality and referral sites, and have nixed the spammier forms of search engine optimization—PR (public relations) and SEO (search engine optimization) have emerged as similar practices. Today PR and SEO have nearly identical goals: to obtain earned media. Both PR and SEO need a backbone of relevant, informative, and newsworthy content.

However, while both SEO and PR efforts focus on the same goal, individually they often fall short of maximum effectiveness. Perhaps that is why more and more companies are beginning to merge their SEO and PR efforts into one. Just like the mix of chocolate and peanut butter were “two great tastes that taste great together”, so are SEO and PR two great strategies that work great together. So what are the best ways to marry PR and SEO efforts? Continue reading →

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October 14, 2013

Fake Reviews – Part 2

Issue #301

With the advent of the Internet, word-of-mouth referrals, written recommendations and printed reviews have spread into the online world. All manner of websites now allow consumers, experts and trusted sources to write reviews about any product or service… or person, for that matter. Such sites abound including Linked In, Yelp, Trip Advisor, Angie’s List, Urbanspoon and countless others. They allow people to rate everything from restaurants and hotels to retailers and professionals. The problem is that as much as a quarter to a third of all online reviews are totally fake.
Some companies spend a lot of time and money to get good fake reviews or generate bad reviews for competitors. Why do they do it? Is it really all that beneficial to the business? And, if so, what’s to stop all businesses from writing fake reviews until no reviews – even legitimate ones – will have any credibility? Continue reading →

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October 7, 2013

Fake Reviews – Part 1

Issue #300

It’s been said that people do business with people they know, like and trust. That is considered by many to be a basic truth of business. The key ingredient of that formula is trust. Customers want to do business with companies that they trust will do a good job and treat them fairly and courteously. Long before the Internet, consumers used the old-fashioned but reliable method of identifying worthy vendors: Word-of-Mouth. It was understood that past performance was the best indicator of future behavior. From doctors to department stores and from Realtors to restaurants, people would frequent nearby businesses recommended by a family member, friend or colleague. A business that was highly recommended generally could be trusted to deliver a good product or service.
With the advent of the Internet, however, consumers had more choices of companies with which to do business, including companies that were much farther away than their neighborhood. The global village offered more choice but with it also came the challenge of knowing which businesses to trust. The old-fashioned method of identifying worthy vendors was updated for the Internet age. Word-of-mouth referrals evolved into online customer reviews. To facilitate the process, websites sprung up that allowed consumers to write reviews about their experience with that business. Sites such as Yelp, Trip Advisor, Angie’s List, Urbanspoon, Chowhound, and others, allowed customers to rate vendors; everything from restaurants and hotels to retailers and professionals. Problem solved? Not exactly. It now appears that as much as 25-33% of all online reviews are completely bogus. Called astro-turfing, the problem of fake reviews is a growing. Continue reading →

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August 19, 2013

101 Questions to Ask When Considering Marketing Strategies

Issue #294

The best marketers know that, when it comes to marketing, variety is necessary in order to cut through the fog of competition and the vast noise of the marketplace and be able to reach each customer where he or she lives. Regardless of the industry, there is no single marketing channel that is best. The key to successful, long-term marketing is to reach people in the myriad of ways in which they prefer to receive or are most open to accepting messages about products or services. Just as people come in all different shapes, sizes, colors, religions and cultures, so do their preferences for interaction and their receptivity to messages. Some people prefer email promotions. Others look at direct mail circulars. Still others are influenced by billboards. And others listen to radio ads. Some even look at good, old-fashioned print ads.

A marketing channel that is totally ‘outdated and passé’ to one person, such as a branded desk calendar, might be ‘old-school cool’ or just plain practical for someone else. And a new edgy marketing strategy that may make no sense to one person, such as mobile ads, may hit the bulls-eye with someone else. The key is to not fall into the trap of thinking “This doesn’t speak to me, so therefore it won’t appeal to anyone else.” The smartest marketers keep an open mind.

But keeping an open mind and embracing variety has a price. While a diverse marketing program is important, that approach – if unchecked – can also be prohibitively expensive. Given the ever-broadening number of marketing channels available, it is impossible to advertise or promote a company everywhere all the time. So how does one decide which strategies to try and which to ignore? It is a matter of analysis and assessment. The first step is to ask a lot of questions. Continue reading →

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August 12, 2013

In Search of The Best Marketing Channel

Issue #293

It’s been said that variety is the spice of life. Different strokes for different folks. To each his own. These expressions all communicate the fundamental truth that every individual has their own preferred way of doing things or approaching life. What resonates with one person may make no sense to someone else. What one person loves, another may detest.

Take, for instance, how people like their steaks cooked. Some like their steak cooked ‘medium’ which is pink at the center. Others like their meat a little less cooked, ‘medium-rare’, which is pink with a little red in the center. Still others go in the other direction and want a steak ‘well-done,’ cooked through until the meat is gray (which typically offends chefs and gourmands). At the other extreme, some prefer their steak so rare that it might still ‘moo’ on the table. So which customer is right? Is there one best way to cook a steak? When it comes to the restaurant business, the answer is that there is no single ‘right way’ to cook a steak. While chefs may have an opinion on the optimal temperature to cook meat, restaurateurs understand that they must serve it however the customer prefers. The customer – who is paying for the food — should get what they want the way they want it… and preferences vary greatly.

Is that also true of marketing? Is there one best way to deliver a marketing message to customers? Or do preferences vary greatly? If you ask most anyone in business about marketing, they likely will tout the virtues of one or two particular marketing channels above all others. Indeed, company leaders are perpetually in search of the single ‘best’ marketing channel. And they will argue vehemently in favor of the one they deem is ‘best.’ But is there one marketing channel that is consistently superior over all others? Continue reading →

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July 29, 2013

The Power of a Winning Smile

Issue #291

It used to be that a salesperson or company employee could deal with a client for months or years by phone, mail and (most recently) by email and never know what they looked like or vice verse. The advent of social media, digital photography and video has changed all that. Most businessmen and professionals now have a profile on at least one social networking site (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Google+, etc.). Such profiles often feature the person’s picture. Suddenly, a salesperson or employee is not just a faceless name and a headless voice. A picture makes the person ‘real’. Seeing an actual face establishes a deeper connection. And, arguably, the most important part of a person’s facial expression is the smile.

Ironically, if you Google the term “winning smile,” the top ranking results are for dental services. In the world of search engines, smile equals teeth. But in the world of business, a smile actually equals trust. A person’s look / expression can either inspire trust and confidence or conjure doubt and misgivings. A genuine smile (not to be confused with a grimace or fake smile) generally denotes pleasure, sociability, happiness and/or amusement. Smiling is something that is understood by everyone despite culture, race, or religion. Internationally known, cross-cultural studies have confirmed that smiling is a positive means of communication throughout the world. There is even evidence that smiling actually has a positive effect on business, sales and ultimately the bottom line. Continue reading →

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July 22, 2013

Confidentiality in the Workplace

Issue #290

A merger. A game-changing deal. A new product launch. A major policy shift. New cutting-edge technology. An acquisition. A change in leadership. In today’s world of big business and even bigger transactions, confidentiality is of paramount importance. Yet, with today’s high tech, lightning-fast communication tools – such as social media, text messages, flash drives, email, cell phones, and the cloud – hot news can spread faster than a California forest fire. In small businesses, where employees feel more like family than coworkers, private information can spread rapidly through a company and beyond. In big businesses, employees may feel even more disconnected from their employer and ignore their fiduciary responsibility to safeguard company or client information. Indeed, it may even seem at times that the fastest way to disseminate information is to tell employees that information is confidential.
However, company employees are expected to treat all the information in the workplace with care and caution… not just hot news, but any and all information that is sensitive or privy. Every employee at an organization should be prudent enough not to disclose any information that the organization considers sensitive and confidential unless and until consulting with and getting permission from a supervisor. So how can a company ensure that the private information of its clients, vendors, employees and workplace remains just that: private? There are a number of strategies companies can implement that promote the values of privacy, discretion and confidentiality in the workplace. Continue reading →

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July 15, 2013

To Get Satisfied Customers, Start By Controlling Expectations

Issue #289

No matter the business or industry and no matter if they are referred to as clients or customers, the key to their satisfaction often starts long before the product or service being provided is received. Customer satisfaction actually begins with expectations… and those expectations are often set by salespeople who are trying to make the sale. But if a customer’s expectations far exceed or outstrip the level and quality of the good or service to be provided, it is inevitable that the client will be disappointed or worse. If high expectations can result in disappointment, then the logical conclusion would be to lower customer expectations. The problem is that if a customer’s starts out with low expectations from a company, there is a good chance they won’t be patronizing that establishment much longer. What is a company to do?
The first step is to understand that clients can be demanding and will sometimes have expectations that are unreasonable. Unmet expectations, even if they are totally unreasonable, are a recipe for unhappy clients. Setting (finding the happy medium between overpromising and under-delivering) and controlling client expectations is one of the best things any professional can do whether an attorney, Realtor, mortgage lender, property owner, or accountant. etc. There are steps to ensure you have a happy and satisfied client at each stage and the conclusion of a matter. Continue reading →

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