Marketing Demystified Blog

Purple Is My New Favorite Color…for Cows!

admin — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 02:56:59 +0000

Purple Cows? Okay before you think I fell off my rocker, I know that cows aren’t purple. (Actually I don’t know this for a fact, because I am colorblind, but I’m pretty sure they’re not.)But based on a recent experience, purple cows are my favorite…and the reason why could be very important to your business.

In order to explain, I’d like to share a story with you.

Not too long ago I went to our local Costco warehouse. During my trip I noticed a handy gadget that my family just had to have…a two-in-one paper cutter.

On one end it had a guillotine-type slicing blade and on the other side it had a rotary (rolling) cutter that is safe for even the smallest of little fingers. The best part is that the two cutters can be separated from one another so two people could cut paper for projects at the same time.

Since my wife Cheryl is into crafts, and my daughter Emma loves to do projects with her, this cutter was perfect. And it was even a deal at under $30.

So I tossed it in my cart and didn’t gave it a second thought…at least not until I got home and noticed the straight cutting wheel from the rotary cutter wasn’t anywhere to be found.

Since I didn’t have time to go back to Costco, and I really didn’t feel like exchanging it anyway, I decided to call the company instead.

Here’s what happened…

A very friendly gentleman named Steve answered by saying, “Thank you for calling Purple Cows, this is Steve, how can I help you today?”

Once I explained my story, he promptly apologized for the problem. He stated that this certainly isn’t a usual occurrence, but clearly they must have left the piece off at the factory. He said that he would rush a few extra cutting wheels off to me and again he was sorry for the problem.

He then asked if I needed anything else.

I was so impressed at how nice and accommodating Steve was. I thanked him for handling the situation so quickly and easily for me. He then thanked me for calling and we hung up.

Here’s what I thought would happen next…

I expected that in 7 to 10 business days I would receive a package with one or two straight cutting wheels.

Instead, here’s what really happened…

A day or two later a FedEx package arrived containing a set of 12 cutting wheels. Not only did the set include the missing straight cutting wheel, but it also included wheels to make fancy cuts, such as pinking, scalloping, waves, squiggles and more. (I have to admit that I’m not all that excited about crafting, but according to my wife these extra wheels will be great for all kinds of fun projects.)

And that’s when I decided that Purple Cows is a company that clearly understands today’s lesson…moments of truth in your business.

Things happen. It is a fact of life…and of business.

Sometimes things arrive broken or missing. Packages have been known to get lost in the mail from time to time. Maybe the wrong item was shipped, or nothing was shipped at all. Maybe the product didn’t quite live up to the buyer’s expectations. Or maybe it just wasn’t the right product for them in the first place.

We all have had these experiences in our lives.

It is in these moments of truth that your business has the opportunity to really shine.

You have the unique opportunity to go over and above to help endear your customer to your company – or to make them want to tell everyone how terrible you are.

In this day of social media these moments of truth can play a pivotal role in the success (or failure) of your business!

Do you resolve problems quickly and professionally? Do you seem to go out of your way to make your customer feel like the problem wasn’t their fault?

Does the solution you provide more than make up for the inconvenience of the problem?

With Purple Cows it certainly did.

Not only did Steve send 11 extra cutting wheels, that may wife and daughter can use to make all kinds of unusual cuts, but he sent them as quickly as possible (via FedEx). On top of all this, Steve didn’t question whether the piece fell out into the box, or if I was confused about how many cutting wheels were included with the cutter.

He just went above and beyond and solved the problem for me in the best way he possibly could.

The truth is that the retail price on the set of blades is more than I paid for the cutter. Plus last time I checks, FedEx isn’t cheap either.

But none of that really matters!

Steve (and Purple Cows) realizes that a happy customer is a loyal customer.

Here are a few things you can do to help resolve these moments of truth in your business.

1) Think service first.

Sure it cost more for the full set of 12 blades…and to ship them so quickly. But when the package arrived there was absolutely no doubt in my mind that Purple Cows believes in service first.

2) Believe your customers

Steve had no way to verify that I wasn’t making the whole things up just to get something for free. He was quick to say that although it doesn’t happen often, on rare occasions things have been left off at the factory and that they would happily ship it to me.

3) Empower your staff to solve problems.

Steve didn’t have to speak to his Supervisor in order to resolve the issue. He was very quick to apologize for the issue and to say he would send out some replacements blades.

I didn’t need to wait on the line for approval or to speak to three other people

4) Act quickly

The replacement blades were obviously sent right away because I received them a day or two later. As fast as FedEx is, if Purple Cows dragged their feet to ship the package it would have taken many more days to get to me.

5) Be friendly

Obviously if people are angry, don’t try to be cute or funny with them until you calm them down and can tell they are even in the mood to joke around. But being friendly and light-hearted can go a long way to diffuse the situation and make the customer happy.

Remember, the way you handle these moments of truth can help set you apart from your competitors, and can help you build loyal customers.

Things happen. The real question is…how will you handle them?

Are you being innovative and giving more, or are you merely solving the problem?

Remember, marketing (and good service) doesn’t stop when you get a customer…that’s when it really just gets started.

Until next time…happy marketing!

Jonathan

If you would like more information on Purple Cows products you can visit their web site at www.purplecows.net.

I Haven’t Been Sipping Tropical Drinks in Tahiti… Have You?

admin — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 02:19:58 +0000

It has been a while since my last post, and I would LOVE to tell you that during my hiatus I was relaxing on a beach in Tahiti sipping tropical drinks.But I would be lying!

Instead I have been working my tail off.

Many Internet Marketers make a point of selling the Internet lifestyle. You know…work a few hours a month and live like a King (or Queen) the rest of the time. While this may be true for some people, the majority of successful people I know have worked hard to get to where they are…and continue to work hard to stay there.

The difference is that the truly successful people realize that is isn’t just about money…it is about enjoying what you do to make the money. Working hard doesn’t seem like work if you enjoy what you do.

Successful people also realize that if they leverage their time and resources wisely, they can get more work done in less time. They can also do something once and then reap the benefits of it for MANY years to come.

Here’s what I mean…

You can become an affiliate for a product and make money when people purchase that product through your affiliate link OR you can invest the time and money into creating a product yourself and then have affiliates promote it for YOU for years to come.

Given the above example…which would you choose?

Or what about this?

You can spend a lot of time creating sources of traffic to your sites, or you can partner with people who already have traffic to send to your sites. This way you leverage THEIR resources to get your traffic a whole lot faster and easier.

Here’s a real world example…

I recently created a system where I was contacting people in one of my niches to see if they were interested in a mutually beneficial partnership…also known as a Joint Venture partnership.

I initially created, tested and refined the process myself so that one of my employees could follow my system exactly the way I had done it. I created the spreadsheets, the emails to send and all of the follow up material. This way I could explain EXACTLY what I wanted him to do and he could continue to contact people while I spent my time focusing on other projects.

I created something once and now someone else (in this case my employee) can use it in the future. I am also leveraging other people’s resources by finding partners to promote my products for me.

So far the response has been incredible. (We are seeing 10% to 20% response rates of people who are ready to partner with us, and to promote our products, not just time-wasting “lookie loos”.) We actually had to stop sending emails for a while because we were getting so many positive responses that we just couldn’t keep up.

We have had people write reviews about our products and post them on their web sites. Others have written articles and submitted them to the article directories. People have sent emails to their email list about our products. Others are finding new and creative ways to incorporate our marketing message into their marketing efforts.

Instead of my staff and I doing all of this work, we are now leveraging other people’s time and resources (customers, subscribers, web site visitors, etc.) to help grow our business.

Because this system has been working so well for us, one of my business partners will be interviewing me next month about the entire process. I’m very excited to share this information with you, so make sure you check back to get all the details.

So again, here’s the lesson of the day…

As you are spending time in your Internet Marketing business (or whatever type of business you are in), think about the things you are doing and whether you are really leveraging your time and resources wisely. If not, make a change. It is worth investing the time in your future.

Well I have to get going…its back to the grindstone for me!

Confessions of a FORMER Internet Marketing Dunce!

admin — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 02:38:03 +0000

Have you ever gone to a mall or large shopping center and felt overwhelmed at how many stores there were?Did you wonder which direction to go first? Should you go left…or right?

It was probably quite scary…and frustrating.

That’s the way I was when I first started out in Internet Marketing.

Although I am somewhat of a “techie” and could build a halfway decent web page, beyond that I just couldn’t wrap my head around how to get people to visit my sites.

The truth is that with 15 years of in-the-trenches direct response marketing experience I knew how to market…I just couldn’t figure out how to find the right people to market to.

I could submit articles, leave forum posts, use Google adwords, classifieds…and many, many other methods of getting traffic.

But with overwhelm comes confusion, and with confusion comes a lack of action.

If you look to the left of this post, you’ll probably notice the graphic of the big red arrow that says…YOU ARE HERE!

I intentionally chose this graphic because in most malls or shopping centers there are strategically posted maps showing all of the different stores in the mall.

But this information is useless, without knowing where you are. That’s why the maps always contain a red dot or arrow that tells people where they are.

The words YOU ARE HERE give people a perspective of where they are in relation to all of the stores they want to visit.

My mission with this blog, my newsletter and the reports, audios and videos I will be providing is to help take the confusion, overwhelm and fear out of making money online – and to make it fun and exciting instead.

As you think about the YOU ARE HERE graphic for a moment, remember this. You are no different than anyone else when it comes to building their business. Even the biggest gurus out there started without a list, without a following and without any sort of guarantee they would succeed.

In future posts I will provide you with tips and insights to getting past any fear you may have about building an online business and will also share many of the marketing strategies I have learned over the past 15 years helping my clients and the companies I have worked with to successfully sell their products and services.

I hope you’ll join me for the ride. I promise that not only will it be fun…it WILL be worth your time.