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You? Me? It's About Us.

I've been at managing companies, parts of companies and people in companies for lot of years. Early on in my career, management was taught to me as a very autocratic discipline. With the responsibility to make sure things went right it was essential to make sure people did things right. I demanded that people do as I said. It was a rule-based environment with praise for people who followed the rules and special-step guidance procedures for those who did not.

Over time, I learned better. I learned I had to create an atmosphere where people could thrive, not just work. That was harder to do than just make sure people followed the rules. I had to help them understand that there was something in the success of the effort for them, not just for me or someone higher up or the “Company.” And I had to insure that there really was something in the success of the effort for them. How? By being really and truly interested in them as individuals and by my willingness to learn from them about my own effectiveness. I had to do my part to develop a firm, trusting relationship.

Recently I came across an interview ("Defensive? It Leads To Destructive") with Bob Brennan, CEO of Iron Mountain. In it he discusses the importance of setting the tone at a company. He emphasizes the importance of attracting, hiring and keeping the people that make it possible for a company to excel in the competitive environment in which all of us work. He defines “the biggest organizational challenge” for companies as being defensiveness.

“It's a natural, reptilian kind of response. That defensiveness over-amps corporate cultures. So you try to get it out of the system so people focus on achieving, learning and bonding. The point is, can I really take an interest in you, and you in me, because it's meant to drive out the defensiveness...”

The interview did for me what all good business reading should do. First of all, it makes it obvious why Mr. Brennan is where he is. It also made me reflect on my own skills and approaches to helping companies, and the company's people, thrive. And it reminded me how important it is, if a company is going to be successful, for people to get the most from their company as well. Each employee has to be assured that will really happen at the end of the day.

My jobs these days tend to be as a consultant, not as someone who has organizational chart power within a company. It becomes even more important for me to get the buy-in from the company's people. If they don't see me as relevant to their needs in particular and not just the company's needs, I can't do what I'm hired to do. So what I do has to been understood, by everyone, as being done for all of us. And whether I went back to managing a department or a company or a division, my managerial approach would have to be in the same vein.

Holiday email campaigns - Now is the time to get started! (FREE)

There are two things that people often don't realize about email campaigns.

First, they're an essential part of keeping in touch with customers. They must be a part of your media mix.

Second, they simply are not difficult to make up and send out. Simply follow the basics.

 

Ad Cat Media focuses on email campaigns for small businesses, individuals and non-profits.

• Business to Consumer

• Business to Business

• Non-profits to Community

 What do you do with email campaigns?

• Use email to build relationships. Don't just promote specials or events. Success with email requires that you engage readers and build trust. The consistency of your message, including getting it out regularly, is essential.

• Emails must provide value for those people who aren't ready to buy. Especially if you're in a business sector involving long buying cycles, you want to keep your audience's interest. Don't concentrate only on special offers, donation requests or product features.

• Keep it simple. Put your main idea into the first panel that pops up on the customer's screen when the email is opened. Put other details in the scroll-down but do the attention gathering in the first part of your email.

None of what I've described above is difficult, is it?

What kinds of email campaigns should you consider?

• Business to Consumer

  • How To's

  • Thank you cards

  • Drip campaigns

  • Case studies

  • Product / Service reviews

• Business to Business

  • Advice

  • Case studies

  • Drip campaigns

  • Selling points for prospects

•   Non-profits to Community
  

  • Re-engage with recent success stories

  • Fund raising

  • Activism

  • Sense of community

What is the common denominator? My grandmother's wisdom prevails. “It pays to keep in touch.”

The Holidays are upon us. Time is short to maximize your bottom line for the Holiday Season. It's easy to get started on an email campaign. Sign up to try Email Marketing for free (FREE Trial - Email Marketing) with Ad Cat Media and Constant Contact. Through the middle of December, I'll offer this. Give it a try (FREE) and I will help you set up your first email (FREE). What is the ROI on (FREE)? Call me. We can talk.

Problem-solving 101 (and the results to show for it)

A piece in the New York Times Op-Ed page caught my eye earlier this week. It was an OP-CHART on Lunch Line Design (that may not strike you as exciting but keep reading). Written by Brian Wansink, David R. Just and Joe McKendry, it provides an interesting look into the problem solving process. The link provides access to the entire article.

 

The writers acknowledged the difficulty with getting kids to eat the right things at school. Force the issue or put tofu on the line and the kids can just skip lunch. Or they bring in fast food. So these gentlemen came up with a smarter lunch room. Here are some of the changes and associated results:

 

• Put the nutritious foods, such as the broccoli, at the front of the line, not the middle. Results? Students purchased 10% - 15% more than before.

• Give healthy foods more descriptive names. “Creamy corn,” for instance, not “corn” Based on how my server at a restaurant describes the daily special this seems like a no-brainer. Results? Sales up by 27%.

• Offer a salad. When asked if they wanted salad, the students bought a salad. Results? Sales of salad increased by 33%. (Remember the old sales lesson? “Ask for the sale.”)

• Encouraging the use of trays increased the consumption of vegetables. Without trays, students ate 21% fewer veggies but the same amount of ice cream.

 

There's more that you can read about via the link above.

 

Two things in the article enticed me to read the article in the first place. First, I wanted to understand how they solved the problems they were facing. Second, they quantified the results. The article doesn't say but I suspect that many cafeterias have tried heaping vegetables on lunch lines and wondered why the kids didn't eat the good stuff. And I suspect that even if they had some success, they couldn't quantify it.

 

It's a reminder of how important deliberate, structured problem-solving is. And how important it is to use real numbers to quantify the results. Those are points everyone of us can use to make a difference in our companies. In this day and time, we can't afford not to.

 

If you would like to explore Wansink, Just and McKendry's methodology, there is a lesson plan for developing problem-solving skills on the NYT's “The Learning Network.” It's by Sandhya Nankani and Holly Epstein Ojalvo. Whether you're a teacher who wants a real-life lesson for your own students or you run a company and want your employees to think about problem-solving in a new light, this is a very well developed educational aid. Take a look at "No Quick Fix? Developing Problem-Solving Skills".

 

Want some help implementing something such as this in your business? Drop me a line at dstewart@adcatmedia.com.

 



Taking the Time for Being a Champion

Gina Kolata has an interesting article in the New York Times on “How to Push Past the Pain, as the Champions Do” (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/19/health/nutrition/19best.html?_r=1&ref=science). It was the last part of title that caught my eye; “...as the Champions Do.” How do champions push past the pain?

 

Kolata describes a situation in which an elite runner, Kim Smith, known for records, was suffering in a half marathon in Philadelphia. She kept going and finished fifth.

 

I've been a competitive cyclist and runner. I don't have any particular talent for either sport so I substituted enjoyment (of the sport, not suffering) and tenacity to train and compete to the best of my ability. Kolata (also a runner) quotes Mary Wittenberg of the New York Runners on the matter of tenacity, “Mental tenacity — and the ability to manage and even thrive on and push through pain — is a key segregator between the mortals and immortals in running.”

 

Competitive sport is, for me, a hobby. Business, for me, is very serious. It's how I make a living. The parallels between sports and the rest of life are often brought up in business with reference to a whole range of positive attributes from team work to perserverance. The importance of tenacity in both sports and business is what speaks to me.

 

Kolata quotes her coach, Tom Fleming, as saying, “I was given a body that could train every single day...and a mind, a mentality, that believed that if I trained every day — and I could train every day — I’ll beat you.”

 

“The mentality was I will do whatever it takes to win,” he added. “I was totally willing to have the worst pain. I was totally willing to do whatever it takes to win the race.”

How does an elite athlete or a successful business person prepare themselves to be “totally willing to do whatever it takes to win the race?”

The desired results come from the motivation to push ever harder. Rather than focus on fatigue or pain and the need to ease up, the focus must be on increasing the intensity of the effort.

There's even more to it than that, though. Increasing the effort can push you until you blow up short of the finish line. That's no good. It takes practice to understand how to push, when to push and how to maintain the motivation to push.

Being in business in different than being in a bike race. The effort lasts longer. Since I'm not a professional cyclist, losing a bike race may have meant disappointment but not damage to my livlihood. Losing a client has an immediate and lasting effect on my bottom line though. So the willingness to persevere, the tenancity to see each job through to success, is imperative.

So, I train hard every day. I scour papers – both those delivered to my door and online – for information and knowledge. I meet and correspond with people whose knowledge, ideas and insights on a wide array of topics I trust and respect. I spend time reflecting and studying on solutions and opportunities. I meditate, examine my soul and keep peace with myself. I take the time to define my sense of urgency and to direct it.

Ultimately, talent and ability are important in whatever we choose to do on a serious basis. But it's the tenacity that makes us a winner. And constant practice.

 



The Holidays Are Coming! Are You Where You Think You Are?

It's often easy to get rolling with a successful email campaign and not stop down the road to see if the results are still acceptable. The campaign was designed, implemented and continued because it worked. But now, due to changes in your product line, the time of year, a “worn message,” the expectations of your customers, or a range of other possibilities the results are now not what you want. That's the crux of the matter; is what you are doing with your email campaign bringing people, and money, in the door?

A recent article by Tara Natanson* brought up some interesting points to consider as you get your upcoming Holiday messages ready. She presents four recommendations to keep your email subscribers engaged:

Avoid an image-only message: Your campaign should be made up of a combination of text and images, not just one big image. What does this have to do with open rates? Well, campaigns that are a single-image message often have the worst deliverability rates because this is often what spammers do. Not to mention that a user who has images off by default may not choose to download your image if there isn't some text telling them what the message is about.

It's not all selling: Every message to your list should not be a sales pitch. Remember to keep your audience engaged by offering tips, advice, and other content they can use. Get them interacting with you by including a poll question or ask for feedback using an online survey. You want people opening, reading, and clicking on your messages, so give them a reason to do just that.

Use a good subject line: Your “Subject Line” (and "From" address) should be engaging and clear, making it easy for the recipient to identify who you are. For instance, having your business name in the subject line identifies the email as being from you, making it instantly recognizable to recipients. This also makes it easy to search for and find previous issues a subscriber might have saved for later reading. Plus, if customers really want to read your messages, they will set up a filter to ensure they see your latest campaign. An easily identifiable (and consistent) subject line makes setting up that filter easy.

Things to avoid in your subject line: While trying to be engaging with your subject line, it's important not to be misleading in the process. If you put the words "free gift" in your subject line and the deal within is really "free gift with purchase," that is misleading and will lead to complaints. It's a best practice to avoid "free" and "sale" in your subject line along with any other words commonly used by spammers. You want to look like the legitimate marketer that you are, not a spammer.

These are all good points by Natanson. Keeping your subscribers engaged is absolutely essential. However, the really important issue I want to leave with you is this...Review the situation with your email advertising regularly. It always pays to stop periodically, examine what you're doing, and insure you are getting the expected results. Too often the press of day-to-day business means we don't do the thinking, strategizing and implementation necessary to keep the business growing. Want to have some help looking at your email advertising situation? Give me a call...

*Tara Natanson is Manager of ISP Relations at Constant Contact. She focuses on increasing email deliverability and staying current with email best practices. With more than 10 years of email industry experience, she is a member of the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG), and collaborates with other email service providers and ISPs to reduce network abuse. Tara works hard to make sure the email industry continues to have a place for small businesses.

 

Even Low Hanging Fruit Requires You To Reach

I'm meticulous when it comes to passing out my personal email address. SPAM swarms me if I'm not. So it has been with surprise that I've watch SPAM hit my mailbox every day for the last few weeks. Not the come-ons of Nigerian widows nor the world's greatest deals in Viagra. Nonetheless, emails from firms offering “Government Grants,” “On-line Auctions,” and even some from mainstream insurance companies.

I've not asked for any of these emails. I have not had business dealings with them or bought the products. When I examine the emails, there is no way to opt-out. These emails are either looking to steal from unsuspecting people or they really don't care if they anger potential customers. Gradually I've become more annoyed. I'm in the process of collecting the information to forward to the Attorney General's office as proof of violations of the CAN SPAM laws.

One common question I'm asked by prospective email marketing clients is how to get addresses for their emails. We all know email is an effective way to reach both prospective and repeat customers. But where do the email addresses come from?

 

Email addresses come from people who want to hear from you. People give you their email when they want to know more about your products and services. But it takes a deliberate effort to get these addresses.

I did some work for the campaign of a candidate for local office a couple of years ago. His press guy gave me a huge file of names and email addresses. Someone had given him the list. I looked through it. Roughly 80% of the people on the list weren't able to vote for the candidate because they lived beyond the legal confines of the district. I looked over the 20% who could vote for the guy. I found a couple of my own old email addresses and some from friends. Guess what? I quit using the old ones of mine a number of years ago when I was with an ISP I no longer use. That wasn't much of a list.

The only sure way to get a person's email address to which you can advertise is to ask them for it. Ask them when they pay out. Place a sign up sheet where it's visible. Go to a networking event and ask the people you meet if you can add their name to your newsletter list. Put a sign up block on your website. All of those are legitimate ways to collect names and addresses. It takes work but the people who sign up will listen to what you have to say.

Early Morning

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Sleeping Generations

Autumn in the Forest

Beauty & the Beast

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