Are You a "Back In" Parker?

As I was finishing up my early morning working at a local high school track today the teachers were starting to arrive for the school day. A significant majority of the teachers drove into the parking lot and took the time to back into a parking spot. It was pretty clear that they were  preparing to make a quick exit at the end of the day.

What kind of message does this send to students? Administrators?  Are teachers so stressed that they need to escape as quickly as possible? What about students who need to stay late for help with subjects in which they are struggling?  Perhaps the teachers intent on "working to contract" and not willing to give one minute more than required.

How many of us have the same attitude? It is simple to just put in the time and get through the day, checking out when the clock says it is OK to exit. But that might not be what is best for an employer, or a career, or your customers.

Check your own "parking" routine. Do you arrive at work in the morning and start counting the hours until lunchtime? Do you spend the afternoon thinking about your commute home? Do you think Mondays are simply awful because they are too far away from Friday?

This sort of "get it done and over with" attitude can even affect the boss. Certainly we are all more stressed and piled high with work. Studies show that American productivity is at an all time high. But that does not excuse work that is rushed, shoddy or just good enough to get by.

Let's face it:  none of us will ever again have plenty of time to accomplish our work. Which makes it all the more important that we focus on doing the best job we can, no matter how small or large the task. No more backing in.

The Marketing Decathlon

With the 2012 Olympic Games underway in London, I am eagerly looking forward to the track & field competition. I am especially anticipating the decathlon, the ten-event, two-day competition to determine “the world’s greatest athlete.”  I competed in the decathlon in my younger (and faster) days, so I understand the focus, talent and dedication each decathlete must have to succeed.

Because the decathlon is scored on points based on an athlete’s performance, you can actually win the overall event without winning a single one of the ten component events. To succeed you don’t have to be the very best at any one thing, but you need to be very good at all things in order to accumulate the maximum number of points.

The same can be said for marketing. There are so many channels of communications available today that a marketing professional must become proficient in a wide variety of “events.” You don’t need to be the world’s greatest writer, or graphic designer, or publicist. But you must be very good at these tasks and more.

Here is my list if events in the “marketing decathlon”:

1.     Strategic Marketing Planning

2.     Website Development

3.     Social Media

4.     Advertising – traditional and electronic

5.     E-mail Marketing

6.     Direct Marketing

7.     Public Relations

8.     Blogging

9.     Event Marketing

10.  Graphic Design

These individual “events” are all important components of a well-balanced marketing program. A marketer may be called on to perform in any or all of these disciplines for a client, and often must tackle the full range in the course of a single day!

Does your company’s marketing plan incorporate all ten marketing decathlon events? If not, identify the holes in the program and work to create a plan that is complete so that you can compete for the gold.

Marketing Technology Can Be Cool

Watching the U.S. Open golf tournament on-line (in between working diligently for my clients, of course).  Absolutely fascinated by the banner ad for Rolex , which shows a nice graphic of one of their beautiful watches with the time set in synch with the current time in my viewing area. Very subtle, but very cool.

Why SEO is Not Enough

All of you SEO junkies out there, pay attention. It is great that your website has made it to the first page of Google. I am very happy for you.

But high search engine rankings don't mean anything unless they generate a click through to your website.

A visit to your website doesn't mean anything unless it generates a sale or captures a sales lead.

A sales lead doesn't mean anything unless you follow it up within 72 hours, after which it is dead and gone.

My point is this:  You can't focus on a single aspect of Internet marketing to the exclusion of other, equally important parts of the equation. All of them have to be working together in order to create action that matters.

Good keywords, on-site/off-site SEO and a strong AdWords campaign all lead to site visits. Valuable information and good conversion tools on your website leads to the capture of actionable data. Prompt and targeted follow up leads to an opportunity to create a customer.

Shortcuts and half measures will only cost you time, money and credibility. With 8 out of every 10 consumers using the web to search for information and resources before making a purchase, you can't afford to get it wrong.

Why Talbot's is Destined to Fail.

For those of you who have no contact at all with females, Talbot's is an upscale women's clothing retailer that markets a "classic" look through stores and on-line.

Very tasteful. Very elegant. Very much in trouble in today's marketplace.

A report in today's Boston Globe cites yet another decline in third quarter sales at Talbot's, which is especially damaging leading into the critical holiday shopping season. In response to this news, Talbot's president Trudy Sullivan took the bold step of suspending all advertising immediately.

Huh? People are not coming into your stores or shopping you on-line, and your bright idea to fix the situation is to pull your head in like a turtle ducking into its shell? Sorry, Trudy, but that is not enlightened leadership.  As cookie baron Wally Amos once said, "Cutting advertising to save money is like slashing your wrists to relieve high blood pressure."

If the only expense remaining to be slashed is marketing and advertising, your company is beyond saving. Call Gordon Brothers and organize the going-out-of-business sale right away.

Maybe if you had better advertising you would not be in the deep trench you currently occupy. For a retailer it is not enough to simply put a message out and hope for the best. You need immediate response to make the cash registers ring. Clearly your ad campaign has not delivered.

Obviously, advertising alone did not sink Talbot's, nor can you reasonably expect it to rescue the company. A toxic combination of changing styles, the poor economy, a confusing marketing message, and over reliance on discounting is what poisoned the well. I think Talbot's simply could not decide what it wanted to be when it grew up, and as a result you alienated loyal customers while never pulling in the younger buyers you wanted.

So go ahead and cut all the advertising. Save up that money to pay for the big, bold "Final Clearance" posters that will soon be showing up in your otherwise tastefully decorated windows. I know many well dressed women who will miss Talbot's.

Content, content, content!

A new article by Mikal Belicove posted to the Entrepreneur magazine website provides a concise description of and case for "content marketing." You can read it here:  http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog/220587?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+entrepreneur%2Flatest+%28Entrepreneur+Update%29

Content marketing is nothing new. For more than 20 years I have been urging clients to "share what you know" through newsletters, interviews and by-line articles.  Newer channels such as blogs, Twitter and LinkedIn simply make the delivery process more direct and immediate.

If you don't have content to share with your customers and prospects, it may be time to step back from "empty" marketing and reassess what you have to offer and how you can beef up the validity of your marketing message.

Speaking with Conviction

Why don't we say what we mean? Speak our mind? Tell it like it is?

This clip set to the words of poet Taylor Mali (and put into type by Ronnie Bruce) is an interesting and compelling call to action. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

http://vimeo.com/3829682