My marketing team likes to break loose and get down from time to time. This Happy New Years video will not disappoint. Oh, and watch out for my cameo at 1:08.
Let’s start over
January 2, 2012 By 4 Comments
Just yesterday, I told my wife that I wasn’t going to blog anymore. I resigned to be a not-blogger.
Today, I reconsidered.
Then I redesigned and now, I relaunched.
Truth is, I know what the “successful” bloggers have to do to be successful in this space. Given that I’m a diehard marketing guy, I’ve been lured into the success model. The problem is, I just don’t have time to put that kind of effort into it. So, I wondered what would happen if I broke all the rules and blogged about whatever I wanted? If I didn’t watch the numbers, tweeted every post, or tried to push it? I wondered what would happen if I just let it be? Thoughts of this have already reinvigorated me. I can’t wait to blog again.
For the 166 of you who subscribe to my blog via RSS, THANK YOU! It’s my hope that you find something of value here. If not, feel free to unsubscribe; no hard feelings. But if you stick around, I invite you to become part of the conversation. I promise I’ll reciprocate, leave comments and follow you on Twitter too. All of this is more fun when we’re building community, don’t you think?
Oh, and one more thing: in true marketing fashion, I’m going to test a new format. Rather than only posting my content, I’m going to post content from around the web that I think is interesting. What this ultimately means, is that I will be posting a lot more frequently about topics, articles, research, resources, technology and other areas of interest. Think of it more like a virtual catalog of interesting stuff (to me anyway).
And if you’re here for the first time. Welcome!
For the first time in years, I’m actually excited and simply just write. I hope to see you around.
We are very dangerous.
September 27, 2011 By 5 Comments
You are no more dangerous than when you think what you say and do everyday, isn’t being noticed and does not matter. It matters and it matters greatly. Every word, deed and action has an effect. You, alone, do not determine if those actions are positive or negative. The decision lies with those around you who hear and interpret. You’re at their mercy because at the end the day, you are judged on your actions, not your intentions.
How to Write a Strong Marketing Proposal
August 17, 2011 By 44 Comments
[updated August 17, 2011]
Writing a strong marketing proposal is key to winning new business. It is the point of reference that both you and your client will reference when there is a need to establish expectations, objectives and successes.
Over the years, I have written a lot of proposals. Some were really bad and some were great. In the past year or so, I’ve begun to hone in on what I believe to be a strong marketing proposal template. Since this is one of the keys to success, I thought I would share with you all how I write marketing proposals for my prospect clients.
Note: At the bottom of this post, you will find a Word template that you can download for your own use.
Step 1: The Overview
This purpose of the overview is to show your client that you understand the opportunity at-hand, the market conditions they are facing, and how you and/or your company can help them achieve the goals and objectives. Be careful to keep this section about the client, not you.
Step 2: Your Idea(s)
The next step is to write a summary about your campaign idea(s). You want to be careful to not reveal so much detail that they run with your idea and never hire you. You want them to see that you’ve given it some thought and you have a plan when they hire you.
Step 3: Prove Your Idea
In step three, provide the prospect client with statistics and research that backs up why you think your ideas are viable. In some cases, you may be able to provide insight into an area of opportunity that they never thought of, thus giving you a competitive edge.
Step 4: Objectives *
In step four, list out the objectives that you plan to achieve and when. For example:
- Complete the 2011 marketing strategy and schedule within 30 days
This gives your client a list of deliverables and sets the expectations and benchmarks for success. It also empowers your client to keep you accountable for what you say you’ll deliver.
Step 5: Measurement of Results
In step five, you establish how you and the client will measure success. Be as specific as possible. For example:
- Increase the number of unique visitors at the website by 10% within 90 days of the campaign launch
The temptation is not to be specific because nothing is guaranteed. However, establishing measurable results will build confidence in your client and give you and your team a scoreboard in which you can measure your own success.
Step 6: The Value to [Client Name]
In step six, you establish credibility with your clients. This is where you talk about your previous successes, your technological advances, best-practices and current and/or previous client accomplishments.
Step 7: Timing
In step seven, you estimate how long it will take for you to plan, execute and provide proper analysis of the idea(s) and when you can start on the project.
Step 8: Methodology & Options
One of the keys to a marketing proposal is providing options to your client. If you only give them one, they will see your proposal as take-it-or-leave-it proposal. That will leave you clientless in a heartbeat. However, providing them options empowers them to decide how they will use you based on their needs, not yours. Here are the options that I generally provide to my clients:
- Advisory – In this role, you typically serve in a short-term capacity. Perhaps, three to six months. Your aim is to establish the campaign plan, strategy and analytics, then empower their team to execute.
- Consultative – In this option, you do everything that you would have done in the advisory role, but you work with the staff individually to make sure they are trained to do the job well. You also help with the initial execution of the campaign, but leave the day-to-day details to them. The timing of this option could range from three to nine months.
- Collaborative – In this option, you do all of the above PLUS you work in the day-to-day. The estimated time of involvement will depend on the complexity of the project.
Step 9: Terms & Conditions
In step nine, you present the following:
- financial fees for each of the above options
- payment terms (how much you need upfront to start the contract; discount if contract is paid in full upfront, etc)
- expense terms
- any other conditions you want to put on the proposal
As a general rule, it’s a good idea to keep your terms and conditions minimal, especially with corporate clients. If you opt for the long detailed versions, expect delays due to legal involvement. It’s best to offer the minimal conditions and let their legal team take lead if they decide that your proposal needs legal involvement.
Step 10: Acceptance
In step ten, your client checks their desired option, signs and dates. Don’t forget to provide an easy way for them to send the contract back to you.
In Conclusion
While this process may seem long and drawn out, you’re right it is. The proposal is where we make our money. What keeps your clients coming back are results. Those results are determined by what objectives and measurements you provide within your proposal.
For your convenience, I’ve provided a Word template you can download to get started on.
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Step 4-10 of my proposal template was modeled and adapted from the book, Million Dollar Consulting Toolkit (affiliate link) by Alan Weiss; a book I highly recommend. Here’s a quick summary of the book:
This useful guide provides specific checklists, guidelines, templates, and actual examples for every step of the consulting process. It covers marketing, sales, meetings, implementation, follow-up, invoicing, practice management, insurance, equipment, subcontracting, and scores of other elements. Thousands of people have bought Weiss’s Million Dollar Consulting and started their own consultancy. Now, this handy resource goes hand-in-hand to provide all the tools new consultants need to enact all the recommendations and ideas in Million Dollar Consulting. (src: www.wiley.com)
Let’s connect on Google+
July 14, 2011 By 2 Comments
In case you haven’t heard, Google released it’s version of Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and Flickr a couple of weeks ago, all rolled up into one network called Google+. If you haven’t had a chance to give it a try, I highly encourage you to do so. The experience is just like the early days of Twitter when the content was actual conversations with real people, not just a bunch of self-serving blog post links. Bleh.
If you’re on the outs and haven’t had an invite yet, hit me up on Facebook and Twitter with your Gmail address and I’ll be happy to send you an invite.
If you are already on G+, here’s a link to my profile. Let’s circle up.
The tension of the already, but the not yet
May 18, 2011 By 1 Comment
Perhaps the following thoughts will be familiar:
- I want what I can’t have.
- I wish things to be different than they currently are.
- A couple of changes could change everything.
- I can do it better—myself.
- I see a way out of it and I see a way in deeper.
- I stress. I talk about it. I struggle with it. I strategize more ways out of it, and then I repeat it all again.
- Something has to change. And yet, nothing does.
Maybe this tension is a perfect place? Not because we love being there, but because it’s the beginning of the end of our striving? Maybe this is when we realize that it’s not about us? That ultimately, we’re just part of a greater story that takes time to be written and revealed and at the point of these questions, we don’t know the full story yet.
If you believe, as I do, that more is happening behind our backs than in front of our faces, then the point of which we ask these questions and demand the insight is no different than fast-forwarding to the end of a book to resolve the tension in the middle. You could certainly do that, but then you’d miss out on the rest of the story. Yet, in life, we expend a lot of energy trying to resolve the tension in the middle.
So far, the only thing that I’ve learned in the tension of the already, but the not yet is that nothing I do gets me to the end of the book faster. I only get frustrated because my plans are not working. It’s a no-win strategy and game.
But there’s hope. Check out this play:
“No chance at all if you think you can pull it off yourself. Every chance in the world if you trust God to do it.” – Matthew 19:26
What scriptures have you found helpful in the midst of your tension of the already, but the not yet?
Work for the person coming behind you
May 16, 2011 By 6 Comments
According to the Bureau of Labor, the media number of years that an employee stays at one job is 4.4 years. If you’re ages 25-34, that number drops to 3.1 years. Compared to the industrial revolution when employment tenure was significantly longer, today, it’s not a matter of if, but when you will leave your job.
Leaving is expensive. Best Buy once calculated that it cost them approximately $100,000 to hire, train and bring an employee up-to-speed after another had left…and that’s just what they can quantify. If you’re a small business, someone leaving can be devastating. I find that most small businesses don’t plan for this so when they do, it’s a big deal.
It doesn’t have to be.
As a manager, I’ve learned that if you live by the following five guidelines, not only will you make your job easier, but you will ensure that when transition comes the reputation you worked so hard to build will remain in tact long after you leave:
- Create a how-to manual for your job – According to the book, The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Business Don’t Work and What to do About It [affiliate link], 95% of small businesses will fail after 10 years versus 5% of franchises. You know what the difference between the two is? Franchises come with a how-to manual, small businesses don’t. The takeaway? Think long-term and start building a how-to manual for your job or business today—and buy that book. Seriously, it’s one of my top 10 business books.
- Work yourself out of a job – Your gifts and talents may not be replaceable, but your job is. If you do your job well then you should know exactly who could and should replace you when the time is right. What that means is that it’s time you begin to work yourself out of your job by training one or more people to do what you do every day.
- Manage Up – Take the time to learn and understand how to work with your boss. Believe it or not, a classic mistake by young employees is to think that people need to work with them. You’re wrong. Figure out what your boss needs from you and make sure you deliver every single time…in the way, style, format and method that is most helpful to them…not you.
- Make your boss look like a rock star – This is not about them, but you. Your job is to find ways to make sure that when your manager needs to shine, they can. The last thing you want is for them to be put into the spotlight and not be able to recall the information you have because you didn’t take the time to deliver. That will spell disaster and very well could lead you to the unemployment office.
- Think company first – If your job is only about you and your career path, please ignore everything you just read (if you read this far). If not, then it’s your obligation to put the company and it’s best interests first. Ultimately that means that 1-4 on this list are not an option. Why? Because in transition, being prepared and ready makes it easier, and less expensive and stressful for everybody.
Help me add to this list. What have you done to help prepare for the person coming behind you?
If you like what you read, please consider a retweet or share. Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter where I mainly converse about TV, digital media & marketing.
Always make them tell you no—twice!
May 12, 2011 By 6 Comments
It was the best of times, and the worst of times.
Cameron Strang pulled me into his office and said, “Why not? Let’s do this thing!” The launch date was set for March 2003. He had the idea. We had the focus, drive and passion. Nothing was going to stop us. We were in our mid-twenties, we had no money, and we we’re determined to change the world.
We had everything going against us: new, small, independent, no money, high expectations and ideals. The niche was focused and narrow, the concept was fresh—innovative actually—but the format was old. Magazines had been around for dozens of years, and if we went off of what everyone told us, we were destined to fail.
I was hired to sell. The challenge was that I was tasked to sell a concept to a bunch of cynics. I didn’t have a sample, statistics, years of research or anything that would make selling easy. It was me, a brochure and our concept. It was go-time.
I called. And called. And called. And called. I hadn’t been trained in selling so it was all on-the-job training. My inexperience meant that I left some of the most awkward voicemails. In fact, on one call, I was concluding my voicemail while simultaneously thinking to myself that I had completely botched that message. Rather than saying “thank you” or “good-bye” I proceeded to say, “In Jesus name, Amen.” I kid you not. As expected, they didn’t return my call.
Cynics are hard to sell to. They don’t want to take your calls so I had to figure out ways to get them on the phone. I’d call early in the morning and late in the evening because I had learned that executives are more likely to answer the phone during those times—and it proved to be true. When I would get the opportunity to talk, I heard no, far more than yes. It wasn’t fun or easy and I had to learn to not take it personally.
It took me three months to sell 22 ads for the first issue of RELEVANT magazine. Over the next two years, I refined my approach and style and eventually I learned how to sell an entire issue in about 1-2 weeks.
The lessons learned during this time of my career were vast. However, the biggest lesson was this:
Always make them tell you no—twice!
We are created to say no. We’ve been doing it since we learned to talk and we haven’t stopped. Yet, the difference between those who try and those who are determined is in the innate drive to not give up at the first sign of resistance: push harder, press for understanding, try another angle and always have a back-up strategy.
By the time I left RELEVANT to launch my consulting company, my team and I had grown sales revenue 900+ percent and almost doubled the number of pages sold.
Next time you’re get a no, I dare you to ask again.
Three reasons to never actually do anything
May 11, 2011 By 2 Comments
A couple of months ago, the HR department at the company I work for launched a walking program to motivate and inspire people to become more active. The program came chockfull of incentives for those who were interested in participating. You could accumulate additional vacation time, win individual and departmental awards, discount on your insurance premium and more. They promised that they would make it interesting and challenging by offering “big” incentives for people who walked a certain number of steps every month including up to nine chances to win a free vacation.
To be honest, I didn’t plan on participating. At the time of the announcement, my wife and I had just had our third child and with two other kids (age 3 and 2), I didn’t need one more thing to add to my plate. I was out. I had made my decision.
One week later, I was sitting in a meeting with our executive team. We were discussing a number of issues and then someone said, “You’re participating in the walking program, right?” Before I could utter a response, I began to feel something I haven’t felt since high school: intense peer pressure. Would I reveal that I wasn’t planning on participating or should I act as if I had all along?
I caved.
“Of course I’m participating!” Days later I received my “tracker,” and I was off. However, I quickly ran into a problem.
If you wanted to be eligible for any of the incentives, you had to walk 195,000 steps a month, 4-5 miles/6500 steps a day, for tier one participation and 240,000 steps, 5-6 miles/8000 steps a day, to get a raffle ticket for the free vacation. I was only walking 2000-3000 steps a day. So rather than stepping up my game, I complained.
I sent an email to HR and asked them to reconsider the number of steps needed to hit the goal. I told them that I thought it was unrealistic for a large majority of participants. They politely replied that I was the only one complaining. Ouch.
I had a decision to make. Step it up, or shut up.
I had plenty of reasons to participate. In fact, I’ve been wanting to shed about 20lbs for…I don’t know…about five years. So what was my real excuse?
Let’s be honest. When it comes to advancing, and I don’t mean progress, I mean making remarkable advancements at work, career, future, financial, weight loss, etc, we are prone to focus on why we can’t do the work…and we’ll use just about every excuse we can.
I still had a decision.
Today, I’ve walked 603,516 steps (approximately 429 miles) since March 10, 2011. I’ve hit tier one for two months and tier two (free vacation) once and am on pace for both this month. The best part, I’ve lost over 14lbs.
Yesterday, I ran into the HR ladies while leaving work. They asked me how my steps were coming. I enthusiastically gave them a report and they snickered at me while repeating the contents of my email: “But I can’t do it.” Ouch, but in a good way…they were right to make fun.
So, back to the subject at hand: “Three reasons to never actually do anything.” Here they are:
- I’ll do it later - Actually, you won’t. Do something today. One thing. Then you can say you started.
- I don’t have time – Are you sure? You make time for what you value.
- I just don’t want to – This is likely true.
My good friend, Rob Sperti, once said, “Until your values change, you won’t change.”
What are you waiting to change about your life?
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