Everybody loves a quiz
February 27, 2007
Remember when you were a kid in school…. you’d walk into your classroom and see a new person sitting at the teacher’s desk. By the time you were in high school, you knew that a substitute’s presence at the teacher’s desk meant a pop-quiz was just moments away.
While quizzes in K-12 were bad things, now that you’re in the real world, it’s time to ditch quiz anxiety because online, interactive quizzes are DA BOMB when it comes to web sites and marketing. Read more
Revisiting the Sales Genie story
February 26, 2007
Thanks to Dennis Hatch in his article on Super Bowl Critics. In it, he proclaims that of all the Super Bowl ads, only Sales Genie’s had a chance of measurable success by their irresistable offer….
What I saw was another story…
If you’ve read my earlier posts, you’ll see that Sales Genie has been promising 100 free leads for quite some time now. The problem was that in order to get your “Free” leads, you had to provide a valid credit card.
THREE CHEERS for Sales Genie… because in Dennis’ article, he points out that you no longer need a credit card to claim your 100 free leads. Read more
Preparation is the key….
February 13, 2007
In the 2-12 edition of Sports Illustrated, Rick Reilly lays the blame for the Bears loss in Super Bowl XLI directly upon Rex Grossman’s young shoulders. It appears the young quarter back didn’t do the prep work that Tony Dungy’s boys’ did.
It’s been reported that Peyton Manning would end practice by dragging a bucket of water onto the field and he and his center would practice snapping water soaked balls. As a result, Manning didn’t fumble a single snap during the big show.
Preparing for success is essential to achieving success. I just posted about a local dentist who didn’t prepare for the success of his direct mail campaign. Read more
Let’s blame the advertising….
February 9, 2007
A few weeks ago on a Thursday night, my youngest came in and announced that he had broken a tooth. To say I was alarmed would be an understatement. We’re a household of relatively few problems in the dental realm, but since my son wasn’t in any pain, I decided the matter could wait until the morning.
The next morning, I went to the mail box and was thrilled to see a brochure from a dentist. Since it was Friday, I knew our regular dentist wasn’t open and decided that this might be the opportunity to switch to a new dentist.
The brochure was exceptionally well crafted. It was a work of art…. literally. The colors, the copy, the image all combined to create a MASTERPIECE of persuasion. I picked up the phone and dialed the number. A woman answers the phone.
“I’d like to schedule an appointment for my son,” I said.
“This is their answering service. They’re not in today,” was the reply.
WHAT KIND OF BUSINESS OWNER SCHEDULES A DIRECT MAIL PIECE TO BE DELIVERED ON THE DAY THE OFFICE IS CLOSED?
The woman who answered the phone didn’t take my name and she didn’t take my number and by the time Monday morning rolled around, the baby tooth which had broken had fallen out without incident. Today, just a few weeks later, I can’t even tell you what the dentist’s name is who sent the brochure.
What really, really stinks is that the poor dentist doesn’t have any idea how well his brochure worked. It ALMOST netted him five new patients that Friday morning…. but he doesn’t work on Fridays.
So when it comes to tally the results of that marketing piece, I’m sure that there will be much moaning and finger groaning. After all, the piece hit mail boxes on either Thursday, Friday or Saturday. If someone got home on Thursday night, chances are SLIM of them hanging on to the brochure until Monday morning rolled around.
If the phone rang off the hook all day Friday, that dentist will never know. Even if he is informed, since the answering service didn’t take down caller information, there’s no way for the dentist to capitalize upon the response his advertising piece generated.
The best marketing campaign in the world can’t overcome the obstacle of who you have answering the phone. If the woman who answers your phone isn’t able to convert callers into appointments, it doesn’t matter how good your marketing is, your advertising or marketing will never act to grow your business.
Even if I was the only caller on that Friday, my phone call represented 5 new patients for his practice. Our initial visit would probably have covered his mailing costs, if not a portion of the production costs. Over the next few years, the business my family alone would have brought could have made that a worthwhile investment.
The dentist took a one time shot in the dark that connected… but he’ll never know. Even if it netted him 10 other new patients, he lost at least five by not having a system in place to follow up on his leads.
Yeah, it would have taken some effort not only on his part, but also on the part of his staff, however the payoff could have been, should have been huge.
3 out of 4 people agree….
February 8, 2007
Just got polled by the Gallup organization on which Yellow Page product I use.
I spent 25 minutes on the phone with a young woman who had trouble finding the “e” key on her keyboard who asked me repeatedly about my yellow page usage. Obviously “the binding has yet to be broken on my 6 month old Yellow Page Directory” isn’t an option.
“Do you use it at work?”
“No, I use the internet.”
“Please ma’am, yes or no answers. When was the last time you used the Yellow Book Yellow Pages.”
“Never”
It went on like this for 25 minutes.
Since the third question required that I go retrieve all the yellow page products in my home, I began to question how “objective” the survey could be. She was surprised [and let me know that she was surprised] when I retrieved my collection of 3 Yellow Page products quickly. I keep mine in a bookcase in my office. My neighbors two doors down obviously don’t keep theirs at all. As soon as a new product arrives, I will see the latest edition sitting on top of their garbage can on garbage pick up day during my daily morning walk. Obivously, if the nice Gallup lady had called my neighbors, she couldn’t have included their answers about their use of the yellow pages because they don’t keep them around. Requiring that I have quick and easy access to the directories is a tactic that clearly states, “Skew the results please!”
While her reason for requiring me to locate a copy was to read her the code from the book…. that code didn’t provide ANY information for her. I still had to tell her the date of publication as well as the city listed in the largest print on the front. If the special code I read didn’t tell her that, what did it tell her? I’ll tell you, it told her that my yellow page directories were easily found in my home. THAT is one of the characteristics of a heavy yellow page directory user.
The only Yellow Page product I have used in the past 6 months is the local directory we got just before we moved from Indiana. She definitely didn’t like that answer and tried like heck to tie the copy of Yellow Book I have sitting here with the binding intact to my answers about my last use of the Yellow Pages.
As we finished the call, I reflected on the “accuracy” of the poll. I kept coming back to the “screening” tools built into the poll, clearly designed to provide the results for which they were seeking. This was obviously a poll commissioned in the name of “mining for marketing material”. I mean, how many people who DO NOT use the Yellow Pages keep them around? If you can’t produce your copy of the yellow pages quickly, then the call ends and she moves on to the next “victim”.
So the next time you encounter a yellow page directory’s ad which claims that 90% of homes use their product on a regular basis, just remember how those results were obtained. Oh, and if you’re comissioning your own poll in the name of “mining for marketing data” try not to be so transparent about your efforts to skew the results.
The value of a Niche
February 1, 2007
Sorry, but I have Colts on the brain this week. So do alot of other Hoosiers and even some who don’t call Indiana home.
You could say that Colts fans are an ideal definition of a niche market and one where geographical location plays less of a role than you might imagine.
Brain Gardner is a Colts fan who’s actually living in Chicago. (Watch the game at home Brian! It’s not going to be safe for you to be on the streets come 10:00 PM Sunday!) So while Brian lives outside of “official” Colts territory, he still identifies himself as part of that “niche audience.” My family lives in southern Florida, but as transplanted Hoosiers, we still root for the Colts even though we live less than 2 hours away from Dophin Stadium. Even though we’re physically far removed from Indiana, we’re also counted as part of that “niche market.”
The thing is, if you’re targeting Colts fans, you now have our undivided attention. What have you got for us? We’re ready, we’re listening. We are a niche market ready to whip out our billfolds and buy, buy, buy.
Oh, my hair dresser from Boston feels a bit differently about the whole thing. She’s a BIG Patriots fan and though I haven’t spoken to her in the past 10 days, I imagine she’s not donning a Peyton Manning jersey these days.
In this case, it’s easy to see that most Bostonians are NOT in the market for Colts gear this week. So defining your market as “NFL Football Fans” is TRULY too wide of a niche. How many people do you see displaying the NFL logo with pride? Can you see the difference between defining your niche as “NFL football fans” and “Colts fans”.
As you drive through neighborhoods in South Florida this week, you can instantly spot the Chicago transplants and their Hoosier counterparts. Very few homes are decorated with generic Super Bowl XLI to celebrate the event being held nearby, but Bears and Colts fans alike have dug deep to show their hometown pride.
THAT IS THE VALUE OF A NICHE MARKET!!! The question remains; How narrowly have you defined your niche?
