Marketing is About Buffalo, Not Bull August 29, 2006
Posted by Tim Raines in: business, marketing , add a commentDr. Joe Vitale tells an interesting story about a buffalo rancher he met who disliked marketing. As it turns out, he may be one of the best marketers ever.
If you’re offering a product or service you believe in, then share your excitement for it to the right audience. (If you don’t believe in your product or service, what are you doing trying to sell it?)
Said another way, if you have something that would truly benefit a certain group of people, and you don’t tell them, aren’t you doing them a dis-service?
One of the best stories you could ever tell in your marketing efforts is the truth. And one of the best groups to tell it to is the “right audience”. In a bit of shameless self-promotion, my company can help you get your message into the hands of the “right audience”…for just pennies per prospect.
Whether you use our services or not, however, make sure your message is truthful…and make sure it gets to the right audience.
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Could Your Business Writing Use Some Help? August 28, 2006
Posted by Tim Raines in: business, marketing , add a commentMost people, whether they’re writing promotions, mail pieces, web ads, proposals, blogs, press releases or a letter to their Aunt Sue, often use jargon without realizing it. Now there’s an easy way to clean your copy: Bullfighter version 1.2.
From their website:
If you think you smell something at work, there’s probably good reason — Bull has become the official language of business. Every day, we get bombarded by an endless stream of filtered, jargon-filled corporate speak, all of which makes it harder to get heard, harder to be authentic, and definitely harder to have fun. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
So give it a try. Fight the bull now!
UPDATE: There’s also this gem that allows you to determine the readability of your text (if it’s available online) using a number of different algorithms. From there, you can decide whether you need to “dumb it down” a bit.
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How to Capitalize on the Attention Lottery August 24, 2006
Posted by Tim Raines in: business, marketing , add a comment
Seth Godin has done it again with a great post on the so-called “attention lottery” and how to make it worth winning.
The problem is that even after you’ve optimized your web site, your mail piece, your ad in the magazine….even after you’ve got the prospect’s attention, you’ve only got it for a short time. Unless your brand is a household name, that prospect may never see your company again. After you’ve won the “attention lottery”, what do you do about it?
The only win I see in the long run is for the winner of today’s attention lottery to earn a subscription (an RSS feed or an email sign up or a podcast subscription) that gives them a chance to be noticed tomorrow as well. Depending on the magic of shuffle for your success is too painful and too unpredictable.
One of the vehicles from the direct marketing world–the business reply card–is a perfect example of this. It allows the prospect to respond without necessarily committing to a sale. “Yes! I’m interested! Send me more info” the reply card often exclaims. The prospect fills out their contact information and the company can now contact them again…and again…in the future.
Of course you should be asking for the sale. But make sure you allow your prospects to ask for future contact. It’s like rigging the lottery.
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Russia Now World’s Leading Oil Producer
Posted by Tim Raines in: business, government, public utilities, finance, mining , add a comment
Overtaking the previously undisputed leader, Saudi Arabia, the Russians pumped 9.236 million barrels of oil in June, 2006, about 46,000 more barrels than the Saudis.
According to MosNews.com,
OPEC statistics show that in the period since 2002 Russian companies have surpassed the Saudis as the world’s biggest oil producers on an on-and-off basis. The latest figures, however, have been hailed in Russia as evidence that such periodic production spikes are no one-offs and that Moscow really does have a right to lay claim to the number one spot.
But many are worried that Russia is becoming addicted to the “oil needle”, with oil and gas revenues now accounting for over 52 percent of all revenues to the state treasury.
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Are You “That Guy”? August 23, 2006
Posted by Tim Raines in: business, management , add a comment
A little less than two years ago, at the ripe “old age” of 33, having settled in to my new house and having decided it was time to become more involved in my community, I applied to join the local volunteer fire department. Growing up, I had always thought of being a police officer or a cowboy. But never a firefighter. Frankly, I didn’t have a clue what I was getting into.
This past year, there was finally an opening for me in a Firefighter I class, and four of us from my department (the other three being half my age, mind you) went off to fire school. Two or three nights a week for three hours each night, we battled through 4 months of what I thought was fairly rigorous training.
One of our instructors, a fire chief in a mid-sized city nearby (who ALSO was younger than me!) was talking to us about roof ventilation. Basically, when you’re fighting a fire, you often want to ventilate the roof by cutting a hole to allow the smoke and heat out so the interior attack goes a bit easier. The guys (and girls) on the inside are hoping you’re going to make their visibility and the temperature better. Jumping on the roof of a burning building, though, is always a dangerous proposition. After all, the roof is generally the hottest place you can be. And the fact that the building is on fire makes it less than structurally sound.
So this bravest of the brave is responsible for climbing a ladder with a chainsaw, getting himself onto the roof, dangling himself off the side of the ladder, starting the saw, cutting a hole and then getting down safely. I don’t know about your day job, but mine is considerably less dangerous.
In light of the skills and general all-around “chutzpah” this requires, the instructor had a saying that has stuck with me ever since: “If you’re not that guy, don’t be that guy.” Huh?
Basically, if you don’t feel comfortable in that position–if you’re not 100% confident in what you’re doing–don’t do it. Don’t put yourself in that spot. Doing so only jeopardizes you–and the firefighters below who are counting on you–and for what? Because you’re embarrassed that you’re not the “ventilation expert”? Because you don’t want to be razzed a bit when you get back to the fire house?
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how this applies to the business world, too. How often do we put ourselves in situations we shouldn’t be in? If you’re not an IT expert, perhaps you shouldn’t be designing the company’s network. If you don’t actually know the answer to a question you’re asked, maybe you should find someone who does. If you don’t think you can complete the project on time and within budget, maybe you shouldn’t accept the job.
If you’re not that guy, don’t be that guy.
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Ready to Go Global?
Posted by Tim Raines in: business, marketing, management , add a comment
You’ll need to learn a language, first.
Sure, you could buy a course, tapes or software. But will any of them be as good as the Foreign Service Institue of the United States? After all, they’ve been “…preparing American diplomats and other professionals…” (read: CIA secret agents) to immerse themselves in foreign cultures for ages.
Now, thanks to this site, you can take your pick from the following languages for the exact same courses:
- Cantonese
- Chinese (Standard)
- French (Original)
- French (Revised)
- German
- Greek
- Portuguese
- Serbo-Croatian
- Spanish Basic
- Spanish Programmatic
- Turkish
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Housing Market Dealt Another Blow
Posted by Tim Raines in: business, construction, real estate, finance , add a comment
Existing home sales took a hit in July, according to numbers released by the National Association of Realtors. Dropping 4.1 percent to their lowest level since January 2004, July’s numbers represent the fourth month in a row to see existing home sales decline.
However, the national median existing home price for all housing types was $230,000 in July, up 0.9 percent from the July 2005.
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Fed Leaves Interest Rates Unchanged August 8, 2006
Posted by Tim Raines in: business, government, finance , add a commentAccording to this article,
The Federal Reserve on Tuesday left a key interest rate unchanged, marking at least a temporary pause in what had been the longest unbroken stretch of Fed rate increases in recent history.
The Fed’s rate-setting committee voted 9 to 1 to leave the federal funds rate, the interest banks charge on overnight loans, at 5.25 percent. It was the first time the Fed had met and not raised rates in more than two years.
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So…What Do You Do?
Posted by Tim Raines in: business, marketing , add a commentYou’re standing in an elevator and someone asks what it is that you do. How do you respond? For starters, according to Brad Isaac, you have your “elevator speech” planned out.
The idea behind an elevator speech is that if you are stepping onto an elevator and someone asks what you do for a living what do you say? You’ve got 10 floors to convice this person you are someone to get to know - someone to do business with. It is an opportunity to sell yourself or if you don’t have one, you might answer in a way where the person yawns and never gives you a second thought.
Plan your speech ahead and you might just win a new customer. Here are Brad’s tips for getting your speech ready:
- Broaden Your Market - Rather than telling your new prospect that you’re a brain surgeon, start with the “healthcare industry”. In most forms of communication with prospects, specific, targeted niche marketing is the way to go. But this is someone you’ve just met. This, however, is an unqualified prospect.
- Power Verbs - Don’t use passive language. Don’t use a lot of nouns. Building on the previous example, saying you’re in the healthcare industry is not nearly as interesting as “I work in the healthcare industry, saving patients lives and working to ensure their successful long-term recovery.”
- Numbers Hook - Again, with the previous example, have you saved lives or have you saved over 100 lives this year alone? The second sounds much better.
- Solve a Deep Need - The examples above might not solve a deep need for everyone, but if you had a brain tumor or knew of someone who had head trauma, I’m sure you’d be extremely interested.
The bottom line is that brain surgery probably is more interesting than your job. Using these tips, however, in your first brief meetings with people (and all your marketing efforts, for that matter), just might gain you a few more prospects than you’re getting now.
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Strategic Petroleum Reserve Could Be Tapped August 7, 2006
Posted by Tim Raines in: business, government, manufacturing, public utilities, transportation, finance , add a comment
Due to the BP shutdown of one of their oil fields, the U.S. Department of Energy is considering providing oil if a refinery requests it. This article quotes Craig Stevens as saying, “”If there is a request for oil we’ll certainly take a serious look at that.”
Most of Alaska’s oil goes to refineries on the West Coast. It was unclear how those refineries would be supplied with oil on the Gulf Coast. However any oil put into the market to replace lost Alaska oil would tend to ease prices, market experts say.
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