Print 4A Purpose

Outliers – September Audiobook of the Month

My son is junior in high school this year. He had to do some reading over the summer and had a test on the last book during the first week of school. He had a list to choose from and I steered him toward Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers: The Story of Success. I enjoyed The Tipping Point and what 16 year old wouldn't be interested in the secret to success.

I "read" at least two books a month from Audible.com. And the good ones, I listen to more than once. In the past, I have highlighted a couple of my favorite books with a blog post but nothing regular or consistent. I've even had the authors read the post and make a comment or two. See Fred Factor written by Mark Sanborn and Book Yourself Solid by Michael Port.

So I thought I'd start sharing my thoughts with an Audiobook of the Month. I plan to do an initial introductory post at the beginning of the month and post comments about the book around the 25^th. I'll officially start with Outliers: The Story of Success.

Advantage Printing is a commercial print and marketing service provider serving small to mid-sized businesses, nonprofits and churches.

Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/davidamoore

 

THINK

Thomas Watson, who founded IBM in 1924, placed on the wall behind his desk a single framed word: THINK. It became the corporate motto of one of the most influential companies of the century.

Think. The handiest source of new product ideas is your mind, if for no other reason than that you are always carrying it around with you. You have a mind. The next step is to open it and keep it open. What you want is to be open to change.

Remember the management guru Peter Drucker? He said the most successful innovations exploit change. Drucker defined seven specific kinds of change that are sources of innovative opportunity:

1. The unexpected, including unexpected success, unexpected failure, and unexpected events.
2. Incongruity between reality as it actually is and reality as it is assumed to be.
3. Innovation based on process need.
4. Changes in industry structure and market structure-especially those that catch everyone unaware.
5. Demographic shifts.
6. Changes in perception, mood, and meaning.
7. New knowledge, including the scientific and the nonscientific.

We are keenly aware of the effect of changes in the graphic and arts industry. Few industries have undergone as much change during the last few years as printing. We anxiously embrace new technologies and see the changes as opportunities – not something to fear or dread.

For more ideas, visit Advantage Printing and our creative ideas page.

Follow me on Twitter @davidamoore

Word of Mouth Marketing (WOM) and the Church

Word of mouth (WOM) marketing is obviously the cheapest form of marketing on the planet. Cheap as measured in monetary terms. WOM is by far the most effective form of marketing when measured by results. So why doesn't every church (or nonprofit or business) wildly succeed. Money isn't a factor. But being cheap doesn't mean WOM marketing doesn't require an investment. It does. It requires a HUGE investment. It's typically more of an investment than most are willing to make. But not an investment in billboards, radio or newspaper advertisements. It requires an investment in people.

It' seems obvious, doesn't it? That WOM marketing is driven by people. For a church, it has to begin with the current congregation. It must possess a strong sense of community and a passion for wanting others to enjoy that same sense of community. We all want to be a part of something bigger that ourselves. If a church member isn't inviting others to come to church or "talking up" their church, it's not because they're ashamed of Christ, they're ashamed of their church.

The catalyst in a growing, thriving church body is the sense of community and divine purpose. It's a being part of a movement that changes lives.

Too many churches invest in new logos and "branding". That's a cheap mistake. Others spend the big bucks on new buildings or maybe a coffee bar. And while those things CAN be a good investment, sometimes they are not in the proper position on the "to-do" marketing list.

Now to me, it wouldn't be a bad thing for business if every church client rotated through logos/branding like changing socks. I have designers and printing presses that can produce that stuff overnight. But we are accustomed to talking about marketing campaigns. I would like to see that changed from marketing campaigns to marketing conversations. And a conversation starts with that one person that not only loves Christ, but loves their church community.

For more on Word of Mouth marketing: WOMM 101 Brains on Fire blog

For custom printing for churches/nonprofits: Advantage Printing

For 1:1 marketing conversations: OBX Advantage

Follow me: @davidamoore

50% of Churches should not be Marketing themselves

Back to Church Marketing 101.  The Starbucks video presents a church in all the wrong ways.  It’s humorous and we can see a lot of ourselves and others in the video.  But the sad truth is: a lot of well meaning churches are spending a lot of time, effort and money promoting themselves when they are not ready.

Richard Reising makes the bold statement, “that over 50 percent of the churches in the United States should not promote themselves.”  It’s a shocking statement and he expects to shock people.  Sometimes that’s what it takes.  His belief is that if the church members aren’t actively inviting new people to come to church, there is a hidden reason.  The internal health of the church might be failing if existing members aren’t excited about bringing friends and neighbors.  And worse, if a church isn’t prepared for new visitors, it may damage their ability to grow in the future.  Imagine a visitor coming, getting a terrible first impression and then spreading the news.  And this isn’t the “Good News”.  As Reising says, “All they are doing is inviting the outside world in to see why no one wants to invite people to their church.”

This is not a book promo, but Reising says his book “deals with the heart of marketing.”  And I plan on addressing that in detail.  But what I like so much about the book is the heart of Reising.  You really get a sense of his calling in the first 30-40 pages.  His professional training is blended with his passion to see the church really get it.  To get it right and get people in the doors for the right reasons and keep them there because they connect with not only other people/members, but they connect with Christ.  Why else market?

So for those reasons, over 50% of churches need to do a lot of things BEFORE they begin marketing themselves.  We’ll look at some of those.

If you haven’t already, do check out Richard Reising's blog.  The Starbucks video is there as well.

Is your church marketing anything like Starbucks?

I recently read the book Church Marketing 101 by Richard Reising. Since a large portion of my printing business is from churches and nonprofit organizations, I have wanted to read this book for quite a while. It is THE primer for church marketing done right. I'll get into more details of the book in a later post, but I came across this video on Reising's blog.

This is fantastic. Take five minutes to watch. If you are making church marketing decisions, it might raise some caution flags. And all church goers will see some "people you know" in the video.

If I can help you with your church print or marketing needs, don't hesitate to EMAIL ME.

New Marketing Mindset

There are a zillion things to do every day as a small business owner or manager. And all of them have priority status. Constant interruptions from staff to ask "urgent" questions or inform you of the latest problem. Checks to write, bills to pay, reports to file, invoices to mail, phones to answer…you get the idea. What's usually last on the list? Marketing.

Marketing must find its way on to the To-Do list. Marketing has to be not only a thing to do, but a mindset. Better yet, a culture. At the very minimum, as the leader, you must have a marketing mindset. But the dream, would be to have your whole team with the same mindset and enthusiasm for marketing as you do. That would be a marketing culture. Every person and every activity geared toward marketing. Always thinking of the impression you are making on prospects and customers.

Marketing has many different pieces like a huge jigsaw puzzle. And if you're like me, you want all the pieces to fit together RIGHT NOW! Yesterday would be even better. Sometimes we insanely believe we can actually pull that off. But as we get frustrated, we realize can be more effective with more FOCUS.

Broadly defined, marketing is building awareness. To focus, we can ask ourselves what we are doing to build awareness for our business, our brand, our product, or even ourselves. I am not going to debate the multitude of marketing definitions, but it all boils down to the same thing. You want your target audience to know who you are, like you, trust you, and then spend money with you.

I recently read the book Book Yourself Solid by @michaelport. And really at the suggestion and nudging of @loubortone. Lou is a certified Book Yourself Solid coach I "met" through twitter. But this book is phenomenal. Packed with great ideas and more importantly, action plans. Click here for more about the book.

Bottom Line: Do something. Start somewhere. I will come up with a list of marketing books as starter suggestions in a future post. In the meantime, please comment on your favorites.

Follow me on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/davidamoore

Website: Advantage Printing or OBX Advantage

Email: david@advantageprint24.com

My "FRED" Sighting

 

I have mentioned The Fred Factor in earlier posts and did a mini review.  You can also click the Amazon link under recommended books.  But we had a "Fred" sighting in my office last week and I wanted to mention one of my own.

I originally read this book in August of 2008.  And for those who don't know, the book is about a postman named Fred.  Read the posts to catch up on the other details.

Well, last August I finally had my front lawn laid with brand new sod.  The entire front lawn.  About $2000 worth of grass.  Unfortunately, due to all the delays, the grass finally was laid in the hottest time of the year in eastern NC.  So I was advised to keep water on the grass from sun up to sun down during the first two weeks.  I did exactly as advised.  Turn the sprinklers on at 7:00am and turned them off at 8:00pm.  Otherwise, the heat would kill my grass and $2000 would be lost.

Now the Fred part.  We all know that US Postal carriers will deliver the mail in rain, hail, sleet and snow, right?  I have never missed a mail delivery due to weather. 

My grass was laid on a Friday and somewhere about Wednesday the following week I thought, "I haven't received any mail this week.  That's strange."  Well, it rains a downpour on Friday.  When I get home from work, guess what?  I have mail!  And guess what?  Written on one of the letters are the words, "Unable to deliver due to sprinkler."  My jaw dropped.  I had just read The Fred Factor and my postal carrier was anything BUT a Fred. 

So I called my Postmaster and would not give my name or address, but complained and thought it should be mentioned at a "staff" meeting or something.  Thinking my postal carrier would get the hint.  I also asked if the Postmaster had ever heard of The Fred Factor.  He never had.  To me, I would have thought it would have been mandatory reading handed down from Washington, DC.  So that's the way I left it.

Next week the weather was clear and hot.  So I ran my sprinklers from 7:00am to 8:00pm.  And guess what?  No mail Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday!  So I make the phone call again to the Postmaster on Thursday about 6:00pm.  By now, he had somehow found out where I lived and who I was.  He told me that he would personally deliver my mail that night when he went home.

At 9:00pm the local Postmaster knocked on my door with an armful of mail.  I had told him it could have waited until Friday but he insisted.  Not only that, he wanted to see the sprinklers running in the front yard to see what the problem was.  He watched the sprinkler pattern and asked questions.

I am not sure what was said to my postal carrier, but I never missed another day of mail.  I went out the next day and bought a couple of copies of The Fred Factor and delivered it to the Postmaster.  I wrote a note inside thanking him for doing a "FRED" thing. 

I hope that he not only read it, but passed it along for others.

Now for you.  I have not only bought several copies for others, but I actually pay my employees $25 each for reading the book. 

How's that for an endorsement?

4 Marketing tips for the slow times

Close to 100% of us use email everyday for personal and business uses. And when you really think about it the business uses are personal. And that needs to be emphasized. I forget where I read the quote, but I use it all the time, "The INBOX is not the mailbox". So make an extra effort not to abuse the privilege to email someone.

So, even if you view email marketing as a privilege, there are plenty of others that don't. Even with your extra effort to make the email personal and relevant, others don't. You still have to cut through the clutter. Inboxes are bombarded everyday and maybe even more so with the economy like it is. So you have to sharpen your tools to make sure your message is opened.

If you are using an email service provider, you are keenly aware of your open rates. If you are not using an email service provider and still using Outlook, etc., shame on you. With the ease and affordability and great vendors, you have no excuses. (This is where I insert a shameless plug for a FREE trial). But you are tracking your open rates and can see the effectiveness of your campaigns.

So let's ensure you are taking the right steps on your end to put you in the best position in the inbox. Four simple steps:

1. Make sure the name in the "From" line is recognizable. Maybe your name is best or it might be your company's name. Remember, email is personal. So the goal would be for the recipient to be looking forward to an email from YOU.
2. Have an engaging "Subject" line. List a benefit to arouse curiosity, but be genuine. Use best practices and use your spam grader. Watch the FREE, all caps, etc.
3. This takes more time. But segment your list to specific audiences. Break down you list into different groups and give them customized content. You will stand out from the crowd of "batch and blast" and will look forward to your next communication.
4. Resist the temptation to bury your customers with emails. Even though you may have permission, don't do it. Spam is defined by the recipient. If they expect you to email once a month and then start receiving something everyday, you are spam.

So there's a start. Email marketing is one of those things that's easy, yet complex. There are a bunch of vendors out there to help you, mostly for free. No excuses. Now go play.

Fred Factor – Great Business Book

I have had some comments locally since I mentioned this book at a Chamber of Commerce function last Thursday night. I am paying my employees to read it and report on it. And this morning in my staff meeting, one of the employees had finished the book over the weekend. She "called out" another employee for being a "Fred" last week. For going, above and beyond the call of duty to satisfy a customer. One occurrence isn't a trend, but it was a great thing to witness. For just a second, I thought, "They get it!". So anyway, I thought I'd elaborate just a bit on The Fred Factor.

Mark Sanborn is a speaker/writer and Fred Factor is a true story about his postman named, FRED. But Fred loves his job and he loves people. And because of his passion and genuine nature of caring, he uses everyday to make a difference in people's lives. It could be very little things like hiding the mail when no one is home or picking up a newspaper in the rain.

Part of the book is the story and the rest is "how-to". Those are my favorite kinds of books, entertaining but the meat too. Here is a partial review from Audible (audiobooks):

Sanborn reveals four basic "how to" principles that will help us bring fresh energy and creativity to our life and work: how to make a real difference everyday, how to become more successful by building strong relationships, how to create real value for others without spending a penny, and how to constantly reinvent yourself.

So check it out for yourself first and then your staff. It may be the best investment I make for 2009.

 

Reasons you might want to consider a Microsite

Your website probably has tons of info packed into multiple pages. The more pages, pictures and gadgets…you thought the better deal I'm getting. When you built or had your website built, you probably modeled it after one of your favorites or maybe even your competitors. Most of the time all that info is a good thing. But sometimes it's easy for something new and important to get lost.

So the next time you need to highlight a new product, service or special promotion, consider developing a special "landing page" or microsite.

A microsite is a separate landing page or minisite meant to function as a supplement to your main website. It will typically have its own unique URL, look and function, and focuses only on content regarding the new product, service or special promotion. To decide whether or not you need a microsite, consider your goals and objectives. If you are looking to do any of the following, it might be right for you.

New Product, Service, or Promotion – If you're unveiling a brand new offering, a specialized site can increase response rates. Because the microsite doesn't necessarily have to look like the parent site, you can switch up the design and use things like videos – that you wouldn't use on your company website, allowing you to mold the microsite to fit your objectives. Plus, the microsite can link to your primary site if visitors want more info about you.

Target a Special Audience – Sometimes it just makes sense to customize your message for a targeted group. For example, I did a workshop series targeting Nonprofits. For that promotion, I had a site built just to direct interested nonprofits to that page only. It gave them all the info they needed without excess fluff. They could learn more and register for the workshop or pass. But also on the page, I had links for my main website just so they will think of me the next time. For my next special promotion to a targeted audience, I can tweak the landing page and do it all over again.

Reach Mobile Phone Users – This has become more and more of a problem. As smart phone usage grows, you realize how many websites are not cell phone friendly. If the site is too difficult to navigate on a cell phone, users aren't likely to come back. So, again, looking at the above, New Promotion + Target Audience (i.e. Cell phone users), you may want to create a microsite engineered for easy viewing and navigation with a cell phone.

In fact, I am certain you are already visiting more microsites (landing pages) than you may be aware. Notice the special promotions next time. For example, North Carolina Aquariums has a special promotion called Show Us Your Fish Face . Check it out. It doesn't take you to the main NC Aquarium but, indirectly, that's the objective. And then get you into the aquariums. And that's just local. Be aware and you'll see what I mean. They really are everywhere.

With that in mind, how can you use the concept to grow your business or organization for 2009?