The Message is the Marketing

Southern California AMA Membership Drive

gregimlay — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 23:34:53 +0000

As the VP of Membership for the SoCal AMA, I’m pleased to announce an opportunity for marketers in SoCal to expand their network, increase the value of AMA membership and do their friends and colleagues a favor – all at once: just provide me with leads for new members who we can target for the Spring Membership campaign.

The national headquarters of the AMA is launching their spring membership drive in April, but now is the time for us to generate a list of leads. Please help us grow the chapter (and increase the networking value of membership) by giving us any leads for friends and colleagues who might benefit from membership.

Building Our List

Joining during the drive offers new members special discounts and benefits.
Have coworkers who aren’t members? Your firm can apply for corporate membership and get discounted membership rates for everyone on your team. Give us your boss’s mailing info and we’ll convince him or her of the value!
The membership campaign will include a direct mail package and emails. If you have leads for me, please provide me your colleague’s name, address and email information and I’ll add them to the list.
I need your input by February 15, 2011. You can email me at gregimlay44@gmail.com or send leads through the LinkedIn message system.
Why Join the AMA?

There are benefits to membership in the AMA – both from the local chapter and the national membership:

The AMA national membership offers:
- Exclusive access to vast resources, recorded webinars and whitepapers on MarketingPower.com.
- Several times each week, join into exclusive members-only live webinars.
- One of the great marketing magazines available, Marketing News, published 16 times annually and mailed to your home or business.
- Your choice of additional special interest magazines included in your membership.
- Discounts to AMA conferences.
With your local chapter, you can:
- Quickly integrate and network with the local marketers.
- Connect with local business resources.
- Enjoy discounts for UCLA Extension courses.
- Strengthen your marketing and management skills.
- Expand your conceptual, planning and execution skills through local event management.
- Expand your management, business and public speaking skills by volunteering for the chapter executive board.
Thanks in advance for your help.

If Ad Agencies Can’t Market, Who Can?

gregimlay — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 23:59:30 +0000

I’ve been an admirer of Hank Blank ever since I heard him speak about networking. I even wrote a blog post about that presentation in September 2009.

When The Problem is Lack of Focus

I just re-read his recent posts about problems he’s encountered at advertising agencies that don’t market themselves as well as they market their clients. While we can admire their focus on satisfying their customers, we should question their long-term prospects if they fail to apply strategy to their own self definition and self-marketing efforts.

As Mr. Blank points out, one of the symptoms of a company without strategic focus is opportunism. They chase whichever “deal” presents itself, missing most of them because they haven’t developed the product set for that client because they were too busy addressing the previous “must have” deal. With a strategy, product development positions you for the market you’re approaching, with branding, relationship-building and focused communications bringing the opportunities that are a true “fit” for your organization.

Opportunistic misdirection? I’ve been there – with Electronic Clearing House, Inc. (ECHO) in its early days. As a small credit card processor competing against the likes of First Data Corp and other out-sized payment technology firms, we struggled to be all things to all people. We chased business by developing special technology to obtain one business, without regard to whether this set of features would be of benefit to a sizable segment of even one vertical industry.

Making Choices – And Sticking With Them
ECHO, like companies that survive their opportunistic early days, survived by learning to focus.

My former colleague at Intuit, Scott Blum, described a strategic focus as, among other things, “deciding what not to do.” This means evaluating many opportunities and choosing only those that have the most potential for growth and the most alignment with core competencies. Such an approach led ECHO to focus more specifically on market segments that fit our credit card and echeck expertise.

Applying this Lesson to Sales

I’ve noticed something being part of a sales team. What companies do over months and even years of strategic development, sales people do on a daily basis in spending their valuable time on lists of leads. Who do you call? Which emails do you spend the most time on for follow-up? Choosing means deciding among a variety of alternatives:

Call the CEO who showed interest in your product, but stressed the need for a feature you don’t have.
Call the businesses who use a service that you can implement quickly for a quick hit, or call the businesses who use a product that takes more set-up time but offers more long-term profit?
If this company isn’t calling you back, is it because I wasn’t “on” the first time I called, or is it simply a product they truly have no need for?
Does the theory that X service “would be good” for a Y vertical make sense? Gee, wouldn’t some more research be good on this topic? Is it worth it for the sales person to prove a hyposthesis, or should this be handed off to a research effort?

What’s the answer? A salesman makes decisions based upon his own instincts as well as the direction provided by management. However, a company can’t afford for instinct to drive strategy.

Goodness, Gracious, It’s Cause-Related Marketing!

gregimlay — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 23:11:49 +0000

Cause-Related Marketing – Revisited
As Marketing Director at CheckAlt Payment Services (formerly Skyline’s DirectFED Payment Services), one of my many roles is as blogger for the company blog. While Sarah Goldbaum ably leads this effort as part of her social media marketing, I contribute periodically.

She started a thread on using volunteerism and community support as a means to expand awareness of a company, which I followed in my upcoming post for this week.

This got me to thinking about cause-related marketing. I recently wrote a guide to eBay Giving Works and its relationship to cause-related marketing. I was looking for the best definition to include in this guide, and here’s what I assembled from the explanations I found:

• Cause-related marketing is defined as the public association of a for-profit company with a nonprofit organization, intended to promote the company’s product or service and to raise money for the nonprofit.
• CRM is generally considered to be distinct from corporate philanthropy because the corporate dollars involved in CRM are not outright gifts to a nonprofit organization, hence not tax-deductible. However, the company benefits from gaining a positive reputation with their market.

Some History of Cause Related Marketing:

• The phrase “cause-related marketing” was first used by American Express in 1983 to describe its campaign to raise money for the restoration of the Statue of Liberty.
• American Express made a one-cent donation to the Statue of Liberty every time someone used its charge card.
• The number of new card holders soon grew by 45%, and card usage increased by 28%.

Why Do This?

Recent studies have documented that:
• Consumers carefully consider a company’s reputation when making purchasing decisions
• A company’s community involvement boosts employee morale and loyalty
• According to the Cone Millennial Cause Study in 2006, 89% of Americans (aged 13 to 25) would switch from one brand to another brand of a comparable product (and price) if the latter brand was associated with a “good cause.”

Tips to Leverage CRM

Cause-related marketing can become a cornerstone of your marketing plan. Ideally, your cause-related marketing activities should highlight your company’s reputation within your target market.

Cause-related marketing can positively differentiate your company from your competitors and provide an edge that delivers other tangible benefits, including:
• Increased sales
• Increased visibility
• Increased customer loyalty
• Enhanced company image
• Positive media coverage

Tips to Leverage CRM

• Team up with a charity. This means getting involved in as many ways as possible and really owning the relationship with them. In the DirectFED blog, I point to some great examples of this.
• Select a cause that is important to your target market. Note that womens products are likely to have an association with womens causes, such as breast cancer. Try to determine which charity is best for you to highlight your values and those of your customer base.
• Have fliers for your charity in your business, or links on your website
• Volunteer for the charity. This:
• Demonstrates commitment
• Builds awareness
• Builds your network among other volunteers or board members
But that doesn’t mean everyone is doing it. Whether out of a spirit of good old fashioned community support, or as part of an organized campaign of cause-related marketing, not everyone has seen the light. But take a look around the country, as I recently had a chance to, and you can see many firms active in this movement.

The Lasting Benefits
One thing I can say from my own experience, volunteers are proud of their efforts and enjoy telling their friends and family about them. Those T-shirts that volunteers “get” to wear on the day of the event? They’ll be worn for months and even years to come, a constant reminder to their neighbors and friends about the generosity of their credit union employee. Hmm. I wonder where my old volunteer T’s have gone? I wonder if my wife knows . . . .

Cats are From Marketing, Dogs are From Sales

gregimlay — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 23:36:05 +0000

I’ve spent 20 years in marketing, and almost three months in sales.

And while I’ve owned cats my entire life, I’m only three months into life with Rocky, our chihuahua mix pound puppie. So if I’m off the mark here, please comment and set me straight.

In marketing, like cool cats, we stand back and watch things, analyzing with calculating interest the effects of variables on sales results. We touch and nudge with curious paws a factor here or there and chase down the occasional mouse with special interest. In general, marketers approach their craft with intellectualism. Yes there is passion, but passion driven by numbers (metrics).

In sales, I am already falling into the boundless enthusiasm and can-do attitude of the representative on the hunt. I am confident and energetic, my virtual tail wagging with anticipation of a positive sign from the lead. Like a bloodhound, I track a sale tirelessly, through gatekeeper assistants, voicemail mazes, price negotiations and multiple meetings. And, when a sales goes south, I’m sure I can look as forlorn as the doggie who’s been scolded by his master for chewing his shoe.

It is amazing how humbling sales can be.

Here’s what I’ve learned so far:
- You need to be upbeat and strong, delivering your message with enthusiasm (even when you’ve already repeated it several dozen times that same day – with no success).

- You need to listen carefully and think fast. Potential buyers will come across as negative first. It’s a natural defensive reaction. But then, a few times each day, maybe only a few times every week, someone will suddenly say something that leaves room for further discussion.

- Engaging the potential customer for 30 seconds can lead to a minute, can lead to 10 minutes, can lead to a warm lead. If you get past the initial defensiveness, you can spend a few moments talking and gaining the trust of the person on the phone. After they learn you’re not a shark-like salesman with white shoes, they’re more open to hear you out and think about your offer.

- I’ve learned – sometimes too late – that a statement of an objection may be overcome with a reasonable response that addresses how your product solves a problem or improves their bottom line. Keeping alert gives you the perception to recognize when those opportunities occur.

Cold Calling Means Always Having to Say You’re Sorry

gregimlay — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 14:13:14 +0000

One month into my new gig at Skyline’s DirectFED Payment Solutions, one notable addition to my list of experiences (but not necessarily my skills) is selling. I don’t mean standing at a trade show booth and selling to professionals who were wandering the aisles, I mean cold calling by phone. “100 calls a day.” That formula is how Shai Stern built his success. Being new to this and respecting his success, I’m doing my best to do a lot of calls. (Keep in mind, I’m also responsible for marketing so I usually do a lot less than 100.)

I used to think that cold calling meant always having to say you’re sorry. You’re interrupting someone’s busy day with an unexpected intrusion, and then giving them a pitch that they have usually decided in advance they will turn down.

You do feel like you’re interrupting a person’s busy day . . . so you have to get them engaged immediately or lose any chance of continuing. So, as part of my job, I’m continually refining the “elevator pitch”, er, make that a “pitch while the elevator door is closing” which is almost literally the sequence of events when some CEO picks up the phone and gives me ten seconds.

Not wanting to suck at this as much as I have so far, I did some research on-line for tips. Oddly enough, there are only about half a million pages of content to read on Google. But the AllBusiness site had the most succinct tips that made the most sense to me.

First Thing in the Morning

One of their tips is to do your calling early, when you’re fresh and when decision makers are in their offices before gatekeepers arrive. So far, this hasn’t worked. For me, I look at selling as something to divert myself from all the marketing activities that occupied my day. I actually look forward to dialing numbers and trying to find someone on the other line besides voice mail. It’s fun to connect.

Have a Script to Refer To
I haven’t tried this yet. I feel like I should know the shpiel. I don’t. A script is in order not for reading but for giving me cues. I won’t read from it, but it will help me to focus on the key messages that catch the listener and invite them to NOT hang up two seconds after I call.

However, this is the bottom line for me. I want to earn commissions just like any hungry sales pro. More than that, I recognize sales as a skill that can have advantages in terms of negotiations, persuasion, and thinking on my feet. I’ll keep you posted.

Personal Business – New Job for Greg!

gregimlay — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:37:40 +0000

Although I have been busy freelancing for the past few months, I have also been keeping my eyes open for a new marketing position.

Announcing . . . a contract-to-hire job! This was a job opportunity that literally came out of the blue, based on a referral to DirectFed Payment Solutions from a former Intuit coworker. It is a fast-moving company that is seeking to grow rapidly and the CEO was anxious for me to come on board ASAP. I’m starting out on a 90-day contractor basis and then determining whether it is a good fit for both them and me before hiring on full-time. This type of arrangement is one that I had never heard of before this recession. However, I believe it makes perfect sense for both the employed and the employer to have a trial period.

My head is somewhat spinning over this turn of events. I heard about it Monday, 3/8/10, interviewed Tuesday, traded emails with the CEO and recruiters Tuesday night, and then went back Wednesday for more interview, which became a working session with some of the key people in the company.

They are hiring me as marketing director/sales support director, with a bunch of duties, and some of my income would be commission based. The company is a payment processing company specializing in “Check 21″ electronic checks, including a new “CheckAlt” service. There’s a lot of work to be done, and I start on Monday!

What I like about the position is that it is a relatively new, entrepreneurial company with a lot of potential. The owners are almost literally billionaires, so it is well funded. This will also be a great opportunity to put on my sales hat and develop my skills in that area – something I have felt was lacking in my career even though I have worked alongside of sales for so long. It will be a challenge, but something that I can learn from while bringing to the table a lot of experience in the industry.

Wish me luck!

What I Learned About Marketing While Sitting at a Slot Machine

gregimlay — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 22:47:53 +0000

Last week (February 15-17), my wife, Debbie, and I visited Las Vegas. We weren’t there to gamble or party (not really, anyway) but rather to source products for her eBay business at the OffPrice Show tradeshow. I’ll describe the show in “eBay Elations”, my eBay blog.

Deb and I had a great time, no doubt about it, but I couldn’t help noting some interesting marketing lessons from our friends in Nevada.

Researching Marketing Techniques at the Venetian

One thing I noticed was the increasing prevalence of penny slot machines. If you haven’t been to Vegas lately, you should know that no one actually feeds copper coated coins into these machines. It’s all done with bills; payout (if your luck holds out ) is via “Cash Out” receipts.

That being said, it appeared to me that casino management had read the signs of their market – people who are increasingly on budgets – and scaled down the costs to participate in the fun. I figured that their strategy was that they would make up the difference in other ways – like when penny slot gamblers feel lucky and wander over to the craps table for a quick killing, er, gambling suicide.

Actually, as my later research turned out, penny slots are actually a wolf in sheep’s clothing. People think they are going to spend a few bucks at the penny slots, but with all of the ways to bet on various lines (i.e., different ways to win on a each “pull” of the slot machine), they bet more than just a penny or two at a time. More like 50 or 300 each time. In other words, $.50 to $3.00 or more! Since they bet so many lines, they get “hits” more often, winning on one of the many lines they bet. It’s fun, but still a losing proposition!

So much for my theory on drawing customers on a budget. However, the pricing lesson is also worth noting: advertise low cost but make it tempting and easy to upgrade.

Chinese New Year Trumps Mardi Gras
It’s no secret to Las Vegas, nor the various Native American Casinos, that Asians love gambling. The attention paid to them is simply Marketing 101: When you want to increase your business, pursue the niche or market segment that pays off the most. In Vegas, it’s clear that is the Asian market. This year, Mardi Gras, February 16, coincided with Chinese New Year. Both are big holidays, but which got the most attention in Sin City?

Year of the Tiger Beats Mardi Gras

The Year of the Tiger was commemorated with a giant sculpture in the Venetian Lobby as you’ll see in my photo, not to mention special covers on chairs at the tables, posters in walkways, “Happy Year of the Tiger” bilboards, whole sections of tables devoted to Asian games, paper lanterns at every turn, and a corresponding number of Asian patrons trying their luck. Where did Mardi Gras appear in the scheme of things? Except at the Rio (Brazilian Carnival-themed casino), not many places! I wonder how things differed at casinos in the south?

City’s Branding Effort Reflects Great Marketing Strategy

gregimlay — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 14:49:51 +0000

Glendale, CA, feels it has lost its identity, and the city council wants to find it. I got a kick out of this story in the local paper, as I once lived in Glendale and liked the town a lot. I also like the approach the local government is using to start its journey to a marketable identity. As the “Glendale News-Press,” reported, they’re starting with a research effort to figure out the state of their current identity. That’s a great way to start any public relations or marketing program.

While I do not specialize in research, I have made it a passion in my career. Unfortunately, companies don’t always share that passion – either ignoring research they paid for, or not attempting it at all. Hiring the first research director at Electronic Clearing House, Inc., I was pleased that the company, which was growing rapidly and still operated like a start-up at that time, wanted to commit resources to understanding customers and the market better. The experience with research at ECHO points to some lessons that Glendale can learn from.

Know Your Objectives – Before asking a single question or planning the first task of your research, be clear on your objectives. Researchers tell repeated stories about firms that were fuzzy on their objectives, then obtained results that were unfocused and off the mark.
Seek Actionable Information – Be sure that your efforts will pay off with information you can react to with programs and tactics. Without this focus, you’ll stumble on interesting factoids and anecdotes, but nothing that informs future actions that can help your company.
Quality Check Your Research – If you employ surveys or interviews, be sure to have both the sequence of the questions, the questions themselves, and the multiple-choice answers (if applicable) tested by someone or a group of people who are not involved with your research to QC your effort. Everything from typos, to biased questions, to logical breaks need to be ferreted out before you begin the actual survey/interviews.
Follow Through – While companies often invest in research, they waste the money if they don’t intend to follow through and act on the intelligence.

Recently, to freshen my perspective on research I took a one-day course in “Qualitative Research” taught by Barbara Lewis (Criterion Consulting Group) at UCLA. I’m still going to defer to experts when it comes to the details of building a research program, but I am even more convinced that research is a vital first step to any strategic or marketing initiative.

And Now For Something Completely Different . . . Glendale!

I’m looking forward to the results Glendale will receive. The city is uniquely multicultural, primarily Middle Eastern (Armenian and Iranian) in culture, mixed liberally with various Asian nationalities (Korean, Fillipino, and Chinese), Hispanics, and, to a lesser degree, Anglos. It was developed heavily in the last 30 years, and in that time the results of change have led to a disjointed, inconsistent urban environment.

Knee Deep in Direct Mail? That’s a good thing.

gregimlay — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 15:31:01 +0000

My interest in direct mail has always been high, even in these days of email marketing. Frankly, mail intrigues me. I like stealthy envelopes that seem important and pique my curiosity. I fall for the ones with enticing snipes on the front. All of them. I open it . . . but realize not every one will do so.

Now, in consulting with clients in Southern California, I decided to take another look at my own biases and confront a contemporary answer to the following:

“Would I recommend direct mail to a client? Why not stick with email?”

The first place I chose to examine this question is in the macro view. Between the poor economy, decline in credit card and mortgage lending, green sensibilities and the rise of email, is direct mail declining as my gut tells me it is? eMarketer, a great source of research data, says it has been. Their data reflects through end of year 2008, but I’m sure we can extrapolate through 2009 when the poor economy by all rights would have squeezed mailers even further.

Still, there’s a lot of mail landing in the country’s mailboxes. Direct Magazine says:

U.S. households received 100 billion pieces of direct mail in 2008, according to the recent U.S. Postal Service Household Diary Study. Not surprisingly, an overwhelming percentage arrived in an envelope. While there may be less in your snail mailbox today than even a year ago, those envelopes must work harder to get noticed — and opened.

But think of this: less mail to sort through means less mail fatigue. Thus, better open rates. In direct mail, getting someone to open your envelope is more than half the battle. More “opens” will equate to more business.

One blogger who proposed this connection is Steve Dammon, CEO of Quantum Digital. He also noted the rise in email marketing projected by Forrester for the next five years. This, in my mind, will simply add to increased clutter in the email. Add it to such email “noise” as:

* LinkedIn notifications

* Notices that I have new friends on Facebook

* eBay “outbid” emails when the good deal on collectibles is getting away

* Mom asking me for my daughter’s latest address

* ALL THE OTHER opt-in information I get and can’t seem to turn off even though I have long since lost interest in the company

You get the idea.

I’m not saying email doesn’t have a place in the marketing mix. It’s a great way to continue engaging a customer or other stakeholder as well as expand relationships. Twitter, RSS feeds, Google Reader and other tools also work. All together, the marketer must ensure they work together in a coordinated scheme.

Woo hoo! Now, if I inadvertently say “direct mail” around a client who’s only into email, I can point to actual facts.

“Yes, Son, There is a Santa Claus in Social Media” – Marketing Advice to my Fitness-Trainer Nephew

gregimlay — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 01:02:34 +0000

Holiday dinners are a great time to talk. This past Christmas, I chatted with my nephew, Denver Whitley, a former U.S. Marine, Afghanistan veteran, and now an independent personal trainer in Reno, Nevada. (I wish I lived closer to Denver as I would like to have half his strength and fitness.) Like any professional, Denver is faced with the challenge of expanding his clientele. Word of mouth is working, but he would like to grow his business even faster.

At dinner, he asked me for some suggestions on marketing, and I gave him a quick demo of ways to market his biz on-line, using social media. Of course, with all the hubbub, I promised to send him a summary of my suggestions in writing in case he missed my sage comments in between eggnog and prime rib.

Below, is my start to that promised letter.

Hi Denver!

I just wanted to get back to you about the marketing tips I promised. It was fun discussing Twitter, Facebook and MySpace marketing! Thanks for not telling your Aunt Debbie that I took seconds of the potato casserole.

In looking at your MySpace Page, I like that you have good exercise photos and useful info. You can set up the same on Facebook. However, instead of putting this on your personal FB page, set up a Fan Page for Engage Personal Training (or call it “Denver Whitley’s Fitness Training” whatever works for the long term). As I mentioned, the reason to focus more on Facebook than MySpace is the demographics of who uses each. Facebook is just more widely followed by people in their 30s-50s, who are your target customers.

To set up a fan page, you’ll have to log-out of Facebook, then, on the login page, note the small link at the bottom of the page that says “Create a Page for a celebrity, band or business.” After it’s started, invite all your friends to “fan” the page, and start mentioning it to your clients so they will sign up too. Print out a screen print of the page and post it at the gym where you work. Add a link at the bottom of your business card.

Using Twitter to Brand Your Skills
To get more followers, and more potential customers, broadcast your content to the world through Twitter. In addition to the photos of exercises you have on MySpace, another type of content would be “fitness tips” in list form. This might sound time-consuming, but here are some ways to make it easier which I’ll list below. To start, write down the top 20 suggestions you make right off the top of your mind and post these on your MySpace blog and copy them to your Facebook fan page (in the “notes” section). Then, post one of these tips on Twitter every few days and include a link to the notes page on your fan page. (To show your local angle, add #Reno to all of your tweets.)*

Spend a minute each day thinking of one tip on fitness and tweet it. It might be a question you were asked by a client about how to lose weight, to fix an injury (like your Uncle Greg!), or build muscle. You might carry a notepad ion your clipboard you carry with you to jot these things down as they pop up. Or sit down and brainstorm a list of 50 with other fitness-minded buddies and write them all down.

Here are some thoughts I had just as an example of some blog posts that would give you lots of Tweets to broadcast:

- The 10 most common fitness problems faced by women, by men; by men over 50, by women over 50, etc. etc..
- Ten common misperceptions people have about fitness.
- Tips for preparing for the marathon.
- Core training – It’s easier than you think.
- Functional training at home and at the gym
- Losing the gut – it’s more than doing crunches.

Each problem and solution goes on a list that you create in Facebook and MySpace blogs. (Remember: blog titles that include a number are immediately engaging: “Top Ten Ways to Lose Weight for Men Over 50.”) (In addition, you can set up a free blog on WordPress or Google Blogs and copy and paste the same content between that, your MySpace and your Facebook page. These blogs can draw more followers, and can be searched and found on Google and other search engines.)

Go Hollywood, Man!
If you’ve taken any videos of exercises, demos, etc. that’s all good stuff to post on YouTube and then link from Facebook and your Twitter Tweets. People love seeing exactly how something is done. If you know someone who has video editing capabilities (even a simple program on a PC) create a version of the video that displays your URL to your Myspace and/or Facebook fan pages. Good advertising!

Feel free to call me any time you want to bounce some ideas off of me. As my nephew, and a really talented trainer, I feel a personal calling to help you succeed.

Best regards,

Greg Imlay

Dear Reader: Please weigh in!

Well, marketing pros, what have I left out? What could you offer that will help a Vet and a really nice guy?

* Remember: to use a short link – go to TinyURL.com, paste the full link into the form and then you can use the short URL in Twitter or your MySpace/Facebook status updates.