The Engaging Brand

Podcast 386 - How To Double Your Profit!

This week's The Engaging Brand podcast covering social media, business ideas and brand marketing tips, is ready to download.

Cameron Herold, the founder of Backpocket CEO and former Chief Operating Officer of 1-800-GOT-JUNK  joins Anna Farmery to discuss how to double your profit - tips from his latest business book  Double Double

• How doubling profits in three years is not hocus pocus magic.....but hocus focus!
• How to paint a picture of your business idea and growth strategy
• Tips on painting a picture in Chapter 1 which you can download for free.
• How sharing the goal with EVERYONE is a prerequisite to growth
• How sharing your business goals is not about you...but about inspring people
• Set your goals - the What....then work backwards to today...for the How.
• How  growth is not necessarily about huge % profit increases
• How entrepreneurs need to have a healthy life outside of work
• The problem of entrepreneurs building a business around your hobby.....it can drain you.
• How entrepreneurs can often suffer attention deficit disorder, being bipolar or even a manic depressive!
• The importance of your office environment and the 4 factors of business culture
• How to generate PR  and Cameron's tips on PR
• Is it easier to be an entrepreneur in tough times

I love to hear your thoughts so email me, anna@theengagingbrand.com, join me on twitter, leave a message at The Engaging Brand Fan Page or join me on to discuss it on Google+

How you can listen to The Engaging Brand

1) You can listen on your PC now without downloading any software just click hear to listen to the latest marketing podcast

2) You can subscribe to the show via iTunes or

3) If you use a different podcatcher then you can subscribe using the following RSS Feed

At the end of the week, bring on the strong!

Just a thought....

So for many of you it is the end of the week.....could we change that to end of the weak?

So that on Monday morning it is the strong who return...with strong meaning

Being strong enough to

Accept feedback that takes you forward

Listening to others to widen your view

Share that "I suppose this is a stupid idea but...."

Think long term not short term

To focus your time on the things that matter rather than the things that are easy

Be brave enough to understand that a happy, balanced life makes for a much stronger leader.

So here's to the end of the weak...and the start of the strong!

 

 

Why Tomorrow...is so Yesterday

We live in a world where tomorrow is...well, it's so, well... yesterday in terms of the world of business and  social marketing!

The business world is dynamic....except for businesses themselves...let me explain.

We live in a real time world, our consumers, our employees all live in a world of real time data feeding through their laptops, their smartphones...their tablet PC's. 

They want a complex combination of quality (a given!) , specificity (another given!), no risk (they read the reviews) and instant (or next day delivery).

Wow...phew...impossible right? Yes, of course it is if we go at the pace of a decade ago...

The world is dynamic now......dynamic in terms of days, hours, minutes, seconds....dymamic is the new time zone!! 

Ok so then we turn to business...and what do we see -  is business as dynamic as the marketplace?

1. Organisational charts and organisational structures which add layers of sign off and for each sign off probably adds a further week or month, the meeting calendar will dictate....
2. Meetings to discuss what kind of meeting we should hold and who should be there...and what we should talk about....
3. Meetings to brainstorm....in reality a collection of post it notes to show leadership is listening...but action? Oh must have a meeting to decide...
4. Return on investment calculations demanded before we try a little pilot....so much store (and I am an accountant by trade!) put on a document which is all ifs and buts!! It is a guess...and as long as the guess fits the criteria...well we can have a meeting to sign it off
5. 27,876 reasons why something won't work...rather than 1 little pilot to see if it does....
6. A meeting to discuss the next line extension as we need to deliver growth...therefore choosing a plan which will cannibalise your sales rather than innovate to grow....safe plodding rather than creative dynamism.

We need to build into our business DNA, a culture of dynamism.....look for people who are dynamic...I don't mean super employees who wear their underwear on the outside...but S.U.P.E.R as in

Seekers and ideas catchers that read, see, listen, learn from anywhere...and then

Unite what they learn with people around you, sharing and collaborating across functions

Prepared to accept the risk and take responsility, knowing you will cheer a known failure just not an unknown success.

Enjoy speed...knowing you can revise once it is out there...with the help of the customer's feedback...which of course you are getting because you are a SEEKER who enjoys improving it....as this is learning not criticism

Refuse to hold meetings which are political rather than dynamic...the onus being on angels advocate not devils advocate

What are you not putting off until tomorrow that you can do today?

What are you putting off for a couple of hours that you can do now?

What are you waiting for?

8 Reasons Why Customers Are More Than Just Buyers

Step change innovation seems so much easier when you are outside the industry.

Think Nike with fitness technology, think Apple with music, think Gore and environment.

Outsiders can see through the "Why we can't", the "We've tried that before"...and they ask we need to, so how do we? 

Socialising business has one huge benefit for creativity and innovation. Each business has at their fingertips...true outsiders...they are called Customers or Consumers! The new customer relationship management is not about creating reasons to buy, but seeing the customer as a resource bank of value.

If you listen to outsiders they can help you

1. Develop innovation at the boundaries of your industry...not just line extensions to your core.
2. Source what competitors offer and what differentiates them from you
3. Source ideas and future projects
4. Help simplify your product or service...removing the lovely add-ons but that no one ever uses!
5. Help you sell your product through social media and review feedback
6. Help you fund growth through crowdfunding.
7. Help you with find the right talent or skills which you require to grow into the future - crowdsourcing.
8. Challenge you when inside the organisation you are coasting.

Customers are an outside resource....why not see them as supplying ideas, connections and resources ...not just money!

Outsiders in the shape of customers and non customers, bring a different view....how many of you spoken to, today?

 

What is Social Business Trying to Do?

Social business is a theme I keep exploring because I think it is going to be so critical in the future, so much so I am doing my PhD on it!

People work for businesses? Wrong, in my humble opinion....

business is the vehicle by which people deliver experience to other people

Over the last few decades the problem has been that the business has been less of a vehicle and more of the driver of the vision.

Social business is about moving people from being the passengers in the vehicle and letting them drive again....

1. Profit should become the outcome of delivering great products and great experiences rather than the goal itself.
2. The customer needs to move inside the process of design and delivery, rather than someone who you sell to...
3. The focus needs to move on creating a long term social contract with customers rather than a one off transaction - great ideas on how on this weeks podcast 
4. The customer should be seen as a resource rather than the recipient.
5. Connections and a nexus style of leadership which brings people together - both inside and outside the 'official organisation chart' - and a nexus within the marketplace rather than a supplier to the marketplace.

Podcast 385 - How to Deliver Insanely Great Customer Service

This week's The Engaging Brand podcast covering social media, business ideas and brand marketing tips, is ready to download.

Carmine Gallo, a former reporter and anchor for CNN and CBS who has sat down with many of the most dynamic and respected business leaders of our time, including Steve Jobs, joins Anna Farmery to discuss how to deliver insanely great customer service, based on his insights into the Apple Experience at retail. Carmine has previously helped us understand how to use Foursquare....a must listen podcast!

• Creating The Customer Experience 
• How we all need to declutter.....from our minds, shelves, product listings, packaging!
• How to sell by designing a store not to make a sale...but to enrich a life and create a shopping experience.
• How the genius bar and one to one programs are about creating customer loyalty.....but its not upselling, it is about creating an ongoing retail experience.
• How to create customer loyalty
• The Wiggly Wigglers Floristry example of making my day...by fulfilling unexpressed wishes
• The science of listening to customers.
• How to get people to interact with the product.....to get people to feel what it is like to own it.
• The concept of Fearless Feedback - ask did i create a customer for life....not a sale.
• The importance of being able to multitask with various customers
• Don't forget to reset the customer clock......
• How it takes 450 hrs to produce a Steve Jobs 20 mins presentation
• The concept of making a script to reinforce the branding message

I love to hear your thoughts so email me, anna@theengagingbrand.com, join me on twitter, leave a message at The Engaging Brand Fan Page or join me on to discuss it on Google+

How you can listen to The Engaging Brand

1) You can listen on your PC now without downloading any software just click hear to listen to the latest marketing podcast

2) You can subscribe to the show via iTunes or

3) If you use a different podcatcher then you can subscribe using the following RSS Feed

Social Marketing is Not Science or Art

The world is getting smaller.

Science can now take us to the nano level.

Facebook knows more about us than most of our friends.

The human life can be taken down to its DNA.......and so can our conversations on the web, our shopping on the web etc etc

The irony is that the deeper the internet goes, the blurry the picture becomes.....I may argue that we are in danger of knowing so much, we know nothing at all.

When I was looking for a book on Amazon Kindle - by the way did you know you can subscribe to The Engaging Brand via the Kindle! - the recommendations included those based on me buying things for other people in the family.

It struck me that at some point the need for more analysis of me as a web customer, starts to be self defeating. Maybe this is why social marketing is not a science and not an art...it is at the juncture of the two...maybe an artience!

You wouldn't look at David Hockney's new painting exhibition at The Royal Academy in London under a microscope.....and yet if scientists had not looked at a nano level we wouldn't now be seeing the wonder of Graphene.

Why is this relevent to social media?

Well I think it is important to know enough about the market, know enough about your target consumer...without getting so detailed that the picture gets blurry. It is important that you look at the juncture of art and science......take the detail of science and match it with the vision of art.

How to Get People To Do What You Want!

In my line of work I come across some amazing people. One of which is Hannah Dawson - a remarkable young lady who is at the forefront of working with horses - our very own horse whisperer! - who can help develop a truly outstanding relationship between an owner and their horse.

I asked Hannah to give an insight into her work...to see if we could learn on how to motivate our teams....(if you want to know more about Hannah you can email her, watch her You Tube channel or visit her website, Hannah Dawson Equine.)

"My expertise is horse training and using positive reinforcement methods to do it. This means rewarding the horse when it gives you the behaviour you want, rather than punishing them for doing the wrong thing. It’s an effective method used by the military and Disney to train their animals, not just because it’s nicer to the animals - they want results!

The responses to these methods are pretty universal throughout the entire animal kingdom and humans are no exception.  

• Let’s start with motivation. The reward has to be something the subject values. Roisin loves apples, India spits them out - training India with apples is pretty ineffective! Finding rewards that motivate people is an individual thing. For some people, money and monetary bonuses will be the best reward, for others it’s praise for a job well done and recognition of their skills. It can be pretty much anything as long as the subject wants it.

• When to reward? When training a horse to go backwards, if I treat it every time, the behaviour actually deteriorates after a while.  Reward works best when it’s variable, so there has to be some level of unpredictability. Going back to horse training, if I always rewarded the 6th step back, I’d get 6 steps and no more. Also, the first few steps tend to be pretty half-hearted, as they never get rewarded. Monthly pay slips or workers on a factory line with a specific number of items to get through, are in the same position as this horse. To add in an extra bit of motivation, occasionally throw in a reward for the first step, or for that extra bit of effort over the necessary work. This will raise motivation and increase productivity.

• Another aspect I focus on is the emotional side of my horse when carrying out the behaviours I ask for. The fact that my horse does it isn’t enough - I want them to enjoy doing what I ask. I call this softness. This means that there is enthusiasm, mental engagement, understanding and a complete lack of resentment, anxiety or tension. For the best work, you want ‘soft’ workers, who are pleased to be working for you and want to go that extra mile. To achieve this with horses, it’s important to set them up for success - put them in a situation where they are likely to succeed. Some horses like to work the puzzle out for themselves; others find guidance reassuring and need a few extra pointers. This is just the same with people and finding the right way to present a task will have a huge bearing on the success of the outcome.

 

Putting all this into practice will really help change the attitude of workers. This is a video of Toby, my 21-year-old pony.

 

I’ve owned him for 15 years and the experiences he had with me in the early years and the experience with humans he had prior to coming to me, meant that he was often cross, resentful and anxious. He did the very minimum of work he needed to and could get very argumentative if he felt I asked anything unreasonable (does this ring any bells in offices??!).

However, due to these positive reinforcement techniques, he is a changed horse (and I’m a changed owner!). He’s now keen, willing, enthusiastic and will put in loads of extra effort for me. He enjoys what he’s doing - I get better results; success all round!"

 

Marketing, Time Travel and Dr Who

Pinterest is the latest growth bubble in social media. It strikes me that it is an example of the power of time travel in marketing!

Photo's are the ultimate time travel accessory. When you see a photo it triggers a memory, it takes you to an experience in your life. The photo only acts as a trigger and they give the power to you....the photo allows you to pick the experience and allows you to guide yourself through the experience.

Photo's therefore are like the ultimate Dr Who time travel box. It is not whether you are in the photo, it is whether the photo triggers the time travel.

So.....the question is ...do you use photos just to add a pictorial element or...

do you use photo's to time travel to an experience that adds the emotional element to potential purchase?