1. Failing to advertise. Do this, and you walk away from a vast amount of potential sales, squandering your existing business. Advertising is the engine of growth-oriented commerce – start it up.

2. Failing to spend enough money. To be effective, your advertising must achieve critical mass. Halfway there, or even ninety percent of the way there, is nowhere near and money wasted. I have known cases where a 50% larger newspaper ad, which cost only 20% more money to run, drew 800% more responses than the smaller ad. Every ad budget is limited, whether it’s $100 or $100 million. Spend yours where its weight will make a difference.

3. Failing to craft your message. If you’ve put your money on the wrong horse, doubling your investment will only double your loss. The same is true of your advertising message.

4. Testing media with one or two insertions. Yes, you should test selected new media. However, a valid test is one that gives that medium a chance to succeed. That means an insertion schedule equaling that of your other media buys. If your budget lacks enough to do a valid test, don’t test at all and put the money into proven efforts.

5. Viewing branding as a goal instead of a milestone. Capturing hearts and minds are measurable milestones, but your real goal is capturing profitable market share.

6. Following blindly marketing advice you find online or in books. Generic advice, while often valid, can only get you so far. At some point, you have to engage your brain (or the brain of a professional advertising or marketing person) and consider your specific situation, product, customer, and need.

Many a business falters because of one or more of these mistakes in advertising. Likewise, many an outwardly successful company fails to realize its full potential. These are six common mistakes – but, being common they often combine or, even more insidious, masquerade as intelligent policy. If you decide a review of your current advertising is in order, I will be happy to cast an impartial, experienced eye over your ads, and tell you in what ways I can help improve your ads and your results.

Just email me at attract at smarthinking dot com dot au or register here to secure your free Smarthinking Audit Report

Vision and Mission
The Vision and Mission of a company should be a driving force, setting the strategic direction of the business. But many are ignored at best, and ridiculed at worst. The Vision and Mission of a company should be a driving force, setting the strategic direction of the business. But many are ignored at best, and ridiculed at worst.

Most of us would have sympathy with this quote, from Hamel and Prahalad: If we took the mission statements of 100 large industrial companies, mixed them up while everyone was asleep, and reassigned them at random, would anyone wake up tomorrow and cry, ‘My gosh, where has our mission statement gone?
Do you even know the Mission and Vision of your own company? And what role do they play?

First, let’s be clear about their respective definitions…

A Vision is a description of the business as you want it to be. In dictionary terms it is, ‘a mental image produced by the imagination’. It involves seeing the optimal future for the business, and vividly describing this vision. The description might include HOW things will be, WHERE, WHO with, WHAT you’ll be doing and HOW you’ll feel.

A Mission is the definition of the ‘special assignment’ being undertaken by the business. It is likely to cover the customer groups that are being served, as well as (perhaps more importantly) the customer needs that are being met.

Well, that’s the theory, but in practice everything gets jumbled up. Which doesn’t matter, so long as they help the strategic development of the business. This will only be achieved if the Vision and Mission are able to:

1    Bring focus and clarity to the desired future of the business (and what makes it distinctive)
2.    Inspire people to work towards that future
3.    Guide people in their decision-making as they reach for this future

Here are three good examples:

The Mission of GlaxoSmithKline is to improve the quality of human life by enabling people to do more, feel better and live longer.
The Mission of Ogilvy & Mather is to be most valued by those who most value brands.
And Amazon aims to be the earth’s most customer centric company.

These statements don’t contain the usual corporate waffle about ‘leadership, innovation, and best-practice’. All these three statements are focused: they provide a guide to behavior, yet the ideas they communicate are big enough to inspire. This ensures they have a valuable role to play in the development of the business.

Ask yourself: Do the Vision and Mission of my company:

•    Bring focus and clarity to the desired future of my business?
•    Inspire people to work towards this future?
•    Guide people in their decision-making as they reach for this future?

With thanks to Colin Bates, Building Brands

You go to a party and you see an attractive girl across the room. You give your friend a buck. She goes up and says “Hi, my friend over there is great in bed, how about it?” That’s Advertising.

You go to a party and see an attractive girl across the room. You somehow get her mobile number. You call and chat her up a while and then say “Hi, I’m great in bed, how about it?” That’s Tele-Marketing.

You go to a party and see an attractive girl across the room. You recognize her. You walk up to her, refresh her memory and get her to laugh and giggle and then suggest, “Hi, I’m great in bed, how about it?” That’s Customer Relationship Management.

You go to a party and you see an attractive girl across the room. You stand straight, you talk soft and smooth, you open the door for the ladies, you smile like a dream, you set an aura around you playing the Mr. Gentleman and then you move up to the girl and say, “Hi, I’m great in bed, how about it?” That’s Hard Selling.

You go to a party, you see an attractive girl across the room. SHE COMES OVER and says, “Hi, I hear you’re great in bed, how about it?” Now THAT is the power of Branding.

Coveted late-stage buyers absorb a lot of your agency’s business development resources in the form of meetings, proposals, and other work required to land the account, but without proper qualification, most people assume the client-to-be is closer to buying than he really is. This leads to far too many resources being applied too early in the buying cycle.

You can reduce your business development workload by using the following four areas of questioning to qualify your clients-to-be and determine how close they are to buying:

1. Is there a need for your services? Does the client-to-be have a current or imminent need, which your company can fill?

If the answer is no, congratulate yourself! You have qualified your client-to-be, and he is a long, long way from buying. No is an answer you can do something with. You have identified that the client-to-be is early in the buying cycle. He’s still buying; he’s just off in the distance. Don’t ignore him, but you certainly don’t need to treat him the way you would treat someone who is ready to buy right now. If the client-to-be does have a current need for your services, that’s even better: you can move on to the next important question.

2. Who makes the decisions? What is the decision making process, who are the decision makers and is the person you are dealing with one of them?

The common mistake of applying more business development resources than necessary often begins with selling into an organization at too low a level or at the wrong entry point into the organization, or neglecting other decision makers to court just one. If you don’t know how decisions are made or who makes them, your likelihood of closing the account before it gets to a competitive pitch is slim.

I once had a client-to-be that I courted for almost three years. He repeatedly expressed interest in our agency and I repeatedly bought him lunch for his expression of interest. After he left the client-to-be company I found out that the decision-making responsibility for the assignment I was pursuing did not even rest in his department, let alone with him! But I repeatedly rewarded him for not setting me straight. His disclosure would have put an end to his free lunches! If I had known how decisions were made and who made them, my time –and money – would have been better spent on those with real decision-making power.

3. Is there a timeframe? When does the client-to-be need to have a solution in place?

A client-to-be that admits that he has a marketing challenge that your agency might be qualified to assist with, but who lacks intent to act to address his challenge is one who is still a long way from buying. Do not mistake information gathering for intent to act. Tyre kickers are plentiful, and more often than not interest does not immediately graduate to intent. Clients-to-be can be stuck in information gathering mode for a very long time without ever forming an intent to solve their problem.

Recognizing a problem exists and deciding to take action to address the problem are two completely different places in the buying cycle separated by an important indicator: the intent to act. This intent is what separates early stage buyers from late stage buyers. Assuming or misdiagnosing this intent is one of the costliest and most common business development mistakes.

Once your client-to-be has truly formed the intent to act, he will act quickly. The question of timeframe is an important one because those with a legitimate intent to act usually have a timeline to do so within six months. Behavioral psychologists know that intent to act outside of six months is no real intent at all. Without a timeline within this six-month window, there is usually little or no intent to buy. Hint: look for the triggering event to back up the timeline: a tradeshow, product launch, annual general meeting, or close of a budget year.

4. Is there a budget? Are funds currently allocated?

Establish whether any money has been set aside for this project, before you worry about how much the budget might be. A client-to-be who has the intent to act as well as resources already allocated to the project is a client-to-be who is ready to buy. These are the clients-to-be who merit proposals. If your client-to-be has intent but no allocated funds, then your objective is to help him set a budget before you present your proposal. Give him a budget range and get approval on it. Then deliver a proposal for a solution within that range.

The price contained in your proposal should never be an obstacle to getting the account. Remove this obstacle prior to presenting the proposal by ensuring that funds are allocated and the price for at least one option within your proposed solution is within the range agreed upon.

Because a proposal represents a significant investment of your time and company resources, you need to make sure it stands a good chance of success. Make sure the client-to-be needs the kind of services you provide and present your proposal only to decision makers who are ready to buy. Period. Do not present a proposal just because your client-to-be requested one. It is common for early-stage clients-to-be with interest but no intent, to ask for proposals. These are the proposals that never get acted upon. They are the opportunities that appear to slowly slip away, when, in reality, any opportunity was still a long way off. No timeline, and no budget assigned, equals no proposal.

Asking the right questions at the right time will help you land more accounts with less work, and save you both time and money.

This post has been adapted from an article by Blair Enns of Enmark Performance Development. For more information, please visit their website at www.winwithoutpitching.com.

• a plan based on action, not analysis
• a plan that’s realistic for your resources
• a plan so simple it can be written on one page

That’s exactly what you’ll get at the practical, Smarthinking one-day marketing plan workshop.

Providing free information to prospects is an ideal system for service-based businesses. Particularly those needing to be introduced to the managerial suite; those whose offering requires substantial investment; or, those with a longer selling cycle.

The selling of services is often complex. The problems start with how service-based businesses deal with the challenges of the intangible service offering. Your client cannot see your product before making an investment. He is generally not in a hurry to make a purchase and when he is ready to buy, you’re just one of several businesses offering similar benefits.

The first hurdle is building the relationship. Obviously, you can’t simply bluff your way into a someone’s office and convince a person you’ve just met to buy stuff from you. So what can you do in advance of your meeting to clearly identify your market position and the specific attributes that make your business the obvious choice?

A free information system is a proven way of attracting qualified prospects

It builds credibility in your service offering, then moves those prospects to a point where they trust you enough to start the sales process. It’s definitely not rocket science and certainly not anything you haven’t heard before. But if you aren’t using this system in your business right now, it probably means you need help with implementation.

To find out more about the SmartKITS program and how the principles of keep-in-touch marketing can help you implement a simple, effective and affordable method of attracting new prospects, download the free info pack
or call Smarthinking on 03 9793 7816.

Inspired by a Modern Art Movement, this updated identity is a testament to the inspiration and original vision of the business owners

Situation

Marklews is one of Melbourne’s most respected boutique builders, known for its innovative, architect-designed homes dotted across the Mornington Peninsula and city suburbs. Coinciding with their 30 year business anniversary, the firm left their leased premises behind and purchased their own offices in Bayside Melbourne.

Having been responsible for designing the existing Marklews identity, we suggested that an update was timely.
The objective was to give a fresh, new look to the brand while retaining all the valuable equity built over their
30 year history.

Approach

The update provided an opportunity to re-connect with the original inspiration that drove the owners when the business was first started. One of these factors was the influence of De Stijl, an early C20 Dutch abstract art movement. Well known examples are designer Gerrit Rietveld’s iconic Red and Blue chair and the primary coloured, asymmetric paintings of Piet Mondrian. These shapes and colour palettes inspired the modernistic treatment of the updated corporate identity.

Outcome

The new aesthetic continued through the collateral and advertising material, anchoring the firm and giving a bright, clean look to its marketing. Marklews new livery speaks powerfully to the needs of prospective clients. It transmits directly what customers get when they use the firm’s services.

I’m firmly of the view that in the business context, brand is a noun, not a verb.

To that end, what currently poses as “branding” is usually no more than a thorough corporate identity system married to a marketing positioning exercise. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, provided that’s what it’s called. Except that many SMB owners have the impression that changing a brand is as easy as getting new business
cards printed.

Corporate Identity/ Visual Identity/ Positioning: it’s old-school language, but at least it’s accurate. Brands came into being when traders needed to distinguish one parcel of a commodity from another. That’s why we started using the word to describe similar products eg. there are many brands of cereal in a supermarket. And I wish that’s where it had ended.

In the last 40 years, the ubiquitous brand and its upstart off-shoot branding have absorbed a range of previously
very specific meanings. In the design industry, we used to talk about corporate and visual identity. They’ve gone.
Marketing professionals used to talk about positioning and character.

They also now come under the heading of branding.

Corporate Identity was defined as: a combination between corporate conduct, appearance, communication and personality. Isn’t that what we now call “the brand”? I betray my design background by preferring the terms visual identity to cover everything graphic and tangible; and reputation to cover everything else. While it’s true that the external appearance of your business can be changed relatively quickly, your reputation cannot.

I’m aware that it’s an old argument and much of it is semantics.

If we now define a brand as: the promise of a desired, expected level of product/service delivery, then there is only one place to find it – in the mind of the customer. The customer is the sole definer of what your brand is and does. The degree of trust your customer gives the brand is a measure of the total experience she has with your business.

You are the sole custodian of your brand attributes because your brand is a direct reflection of the way you do business. If you’re running your business well, the values you impart through your product/service will be reflected in your brand.

There is a danger lying in our attachment to symbols. We use them as shorthand because it makes sense to reduce the amount of superfluous information our brains can carry. By reducing a brand down to just a logo, we can sort through the piles of messages we’re bombarded with every day. But the symbol is just convenient currency, nothing more.

Every single thing you do contributes to your brand. From the way the phone is answered to the box the product is delivered in; from the attitude and personality of the sales person to the advertising and communication.

Of course, any well-run business ensures that all these things are consistent. Many would say that’s branding. I say it’s simply good management.

If you want to build your brand, change your business.

Put another way, ensure your management and processes are running smoothly, efficiently and contain your desired values. Small improvements or changes made at this fundamental level will have far-reaching and major effects for your brand.

Printed collateral pieces of an extensive brand project for a trade-only purchase points program.