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As many of you know, not only do I handle marketing and advertising at B2C Enterprises, I also work as a career firefighter/engineer in Chattanooga, Tennessee. One of the things we do is plan for emergency incidents before they happen, or, in firefighter shorthand, pre-plan.
Immediately I have to decide….Is this a “not sure what to ask you so I’ll just ask the simple how is business question”, or are they genuinely interested in the affairs of the marketing and advertising agency I run?
Most of us are more likely to be uncomfortable. Yet, almost everyone still finds themselves in situations where they have to mingle, network, communicate, or break into a crowd of people. It's not easy, especially if you're not wired for that setting.
Sales blames Marketing and Marketing blames Sales. Either the leads or prospects the sales people are getting from marketing aren't any good, or the leads are great, but those danged sellers can't seem to close any business.
In late 2009, I wrote my first B2Seed. Since then I've written over 60 columns and even in the months (like last month) when I wonder if I'll have anything to share, something strikes me.
They were great trips, but as Mom so rightly pointed out, they came at the very end of the summer. Before the trip there was wiffle ball to play, swimming to dive into, friends to ride bikes with, girls to meet, smaller family trips to take, and movies to watch.
A few years ago, I realized I had started a company without having a full understanding of the best systems to put in place. As the firm grew, things were done in ways that seemed to make the most sense.
For the past few years we've been doing work for Boxley Materials Company. This isn't a piece about one of our clients, rather an interesting study in how business development, building a network of referring partners, and the power of the internet has made our really big world incredibly small.
However, March of every year brings one specific activity that breaks this pattern. They are called "Brackets".
Except it's not - it's really quite simple. Naturally, I like to write - hopefully you can tell that from the energy that goes into delivering some value to you with these monthly pieces.
What is happening in the sports world that applies to those of us in business and industry?
Each of us have discovered that people are fascinating. We simply need to take a little time to get to know them and then listen to what they have to say. That’s a big part of the challenge. As leaders we run from a tasks to meetings to challenges to solutions mindset. Unfortunately, it’s all too rare when we sit and just listen to people.
So often in business a great deal of time is spent focusing on what we’re writing and that’s important. At the same time, it’s important to evaluate the appearance of what is written. Taking a closer look quietly makes a difference in the way copy is presented.
Recently I learned of a fellow business owner who wanted to start doing some advertising. His company had been busy for years, but recently his business had slowed down significantly. The phones weren’t ringing. The orders for work had stopped. Enter the “famine” phase of the feast-famine cycle in commerce.
And just like that, the holidays are already here! As you frantically hang the stockings with care or try to meet those 2022 goals before the new year, it's important to slow down this holiday season both in and out of the office. With these simple tips on how to unplug from work during the holidays, you'll be ready to enjoy the full experience of this season.
The headlines are ever-present. Every day you see a story about how hard it is to find employees. For a while many thought it was the fault of the stimulus checks or people not wanting to work. Some leaders in certain industries, point to the slow downs in immigration and access to those who work in professions which are woefully short-handed.
We read about providing great customer service, but when you’re on the receiving end, man does it feel good.
Over the past five years we’ve built nearly 70 websites. Some have been from scratch, but many are conversions of sites that needed updating, a more modern look and feel, or to better reflect the shifting work our client is now doing.
I remember one in particular where our client insisted over and over that the information on their current (dated) website would simply transfer over to the new design we were doing. No matter how often we asked, we got the same answer. They would not need new copy. When we showed them...
About twenty years ago, in a city far from where my agency is located, I learned a valuable life lesson.
Gathered with me in an old room with dated furniture on a cloudy fall day were 12 people who I’d never met prior to that week. A few days before, we went through a tryout of sorts, and that was also a strange experience. I always wanted to...
Business routines are backwards these days. It used to be I’d build a relationship with someone, then they would become a client. Now, clients decide to trust us to help them and then at some point afterward we begin...
How to be a room shifter.
Where did the curiosity of our youth go?
“We’re actively recruiting for…..”
This is a phrase, or even a buzzword, that c-levelers and human resources management types often toss around without a lot of thought.
Remember the old saying, “curiosity killed the cat”? Well, the lack of curiosity has done-in more than a few businesses and leadership teams. Strong questions make a big impact.
Mister Starr was my 10th grade geometry teacher. I didn’t do so well in his class. I do, however, remember him clearly reminding our class to “check your work”.
We enjoy giving it as a gift to our clients at the holidays. I also love to meet with clients, and prospects, and potential employees as they drink it. While I feel like I should enjoy a cuppa joe, the reality is: “I do not drink coffee!”
About twenty years ago, in a city far from where my agency is located, I learned a valuable life lesson.
Gathered with me in an old room with dated furniture on a cloudy fall day were 12 people who I’d never met prior to that week. A few days before, we went through a tryout of sorts, and that was also a strange experience. I always wanted to...
People want to improve. Well, most people do anyway. They’ll talk the improvement game. They’ll go to conferences. They’ll read those books. Most will target a...
On the first night of November (which did seem weird), the Houston Astros captured their first-ever baseball World Series Championship. Just four years ago they were the laughingstock of the baseball world and had lost over 100 games – a near record for futility.
In the marketing world, we tend to be heavily focused on the next month, quarter, or year.
I will often judge how much we’ll enjoy an act at The Spot based on one natural interaction: I watch how the artist treats our magical, kind, and helpful sound engineer, Travis. If they care for him and treat him well, their performances are almost always extra enjoyable.
B2C Enterprises invests over a million dollars in media most years, while at the same time, interacting with salespeople from at least seven states. That’s a lot of business transactions and a lot of sales appointments.
Use someone else’s informative and entertaining story until you create your own to share. I did this when I was younger and I also did it seven years ago when I started my advertising agency.
They’ve ruined the process for many. Certainly they’ve made a lot of work for those who genuinely do put their prospects' best interests first. Typically when a salesperson walks through the door, the potential client leans to the position of distrust. It may be unfortunate, but it’s generally the case.
You get in and settle into your job and before you know it, the realization hits there are lots of other things that need to get done.
Here’s a reality! Not all marketing and advertising concepts are absolutely critical to your business’ growth and development.
Sometimes you hear a song and realize, hey I know that. Sometimes those songs are for advertising. Maybe it’s a musical branding piece done specifically for a company. Often, it’s a remade song that is newly incorporated into a campaign.
Before and After advertising is as old as... well, advertising. I mean, who hasn’t seen an ad for Weight Watchers, and marveled at the Before and After comparisons of this highly effective weight loss program?
People are unique. We can all agree on that statement. Yet, when looking at marketing decisions, it seems the experts want to lump us into categories with the assumption that everyone occupying that category has the same patterns, desires, interests, and passions.
What’s Content Marketing? Simply put, Content Marketing is the foundation for an entire marketing and communication strategy. Content Marketing can help your website rank on search engines, position you as a subject matter expert, build your stakeholder list and engagement level, and nurture...
Social media accounts are proven to help businesses build brand loyalty, direct users to websites, and collect customer feedback.
Google Analytics has been giving companies and organizations vital information about their website users since 2005. While the world was listening to music on Apple's colorful iPod nano, Google released an innovative new tool online. It allowed marketers and business owners to see who went to their website and what they did once they got there. This tool provided insight on page views, sessions, and bounce rates. Now known as Universal Google Analytics, this powerful database gave viewers valuable information and reporting capabilities to make strategic marketing decisions.
St. Patrick's Day observes the death of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. Today, the holiday is celebrated with parades, special foods, music, dancing, drinking, and a whole lot of green. While many brands take advantage of holidays to create special promotions or campaigns, here are some ways to make your own luck with marketing!
Advertising can seem expensive, but it does not have to be. If you use the right strategies to maximize your budget, you can get the most out of your marketing dollars. Here are some tips to help you reach new customers without draining your budget or cutting into your profit margins.
When it comes to marketing for your business, monsters aren't the best advice-givers. In fact, their insights are quite terrible! When our monster-handling team at 5Points Creative heard about the Marketing Monster's "12 Holiday Marketing Mayhem Tips", we had to...
Kitchens in the ’70s and ’80s had this appliance. It was a hit in suburban households for decades and an omnipresent part of the home back in the olden days.
How do most of us get along without the Trash Compactor now? It’s hard to say, but it’s been decades since the average home has been built with one of these contraptions – at least as far as I know anyway. Back then, the homeowner would...
Late last year something happened in my business’ sales cycle and it got me thinking.
To support another organization, I placed a call to a friend of mine whom I had known for about a dozen years. In the course of the conversation about this other topic, he asked me about marketing and advertising. He wondered how we help clients...
It’s fascinating when a client says something to me that I’ve already thought or said myself many times. As if hearing the idea for the first time, their comment hits my head (or my heart) and drives home a concept chock full of value. That’s exactly what happened to me during a recent Zoom call with a client.
We were talking about their media plans and how they suggested we approach their strategy for the coming season. We were working through their goals, their budget, previous success, and some new ideas to...
This fall, out on a walk, I noticed a house in my neighborhood that provided the perfect picture for what we tell our clients. It was so appropriate I decided to snap a picture. Hopefully it isn’t your home. I’m hoping it can illustrate an important point about your business. Think ahead.
Thinking ahead is good advice for...
Someone makes a move, then the opposing side responds and makes a change. It's the way the sports world has worked for centuries. It's also how business functions.
Football teams played the Single Wing and...
There was an internal battle I had to work through. Last month I wrote about Nick Saban and his approach to changing a culture.
It’s usually pretty easy to come up with a mission statement, a distinguishing characteristic of your organization, or even a unique selling proposition for your company. Leaders frequently focus on these concepts.
I listened to a recent radio broadcast of a college basketball game. The teams were moving up and down the court at a fevered pace. There was lots of movement and action – not any scoring.
When you are brought in to tidy up and refocus a half dozen advertising sales departments over a few decades you’re bound to notice some consistencies. This is the best time of year to note and begin to change one such pattern in your own business.
I knew exactly what I was going to write about until I opened the Wall Street Journal one morning and saw the following headline: Cain Never Prepared for the Storm. Herman Cain. Remember him?
Most every one of my clients is in the budget preparation and planning stage…it is the season after all! Many of you are coming out of some tough times and all the expenses that can realistically be cut have been. To best make these cash flow numbers work for everyone you simply must take another look at the revenue side.
It’s important to get new customers. It’s even more important to keep those customers. Two current business partners of mine specialize in that.
As judges, we had the opportunity to ask questions as we evaluated their plans for the club. Never being one to shy away from stretching young minds -- I focused several questions on the issue of thinking ahead.
I spent $5 (or so) to eat an In & Out Burger, fries and a vanilla milkshake. I spent considerably more to stay at a really nice resort as a small part of the visit to LA.
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Through the years I have kept a series of folders and files labeled “ideas” or “creative concepts”. Whether it was for a talk, a sales concept or a creative idea, when I came across something that really caught my eye or grabbed my attention, I filed it away – never knowing when it might become useful.
People in leadership overuse sports vernacular when dealing with business questions. Things like “no pain no gain”, “step up your game”, “hit a home run”, and the rest you have heard. What is interesting to me is when sports people use sound business principals in their programs.
My managers and I would meet to decide where to shine the flashlight. Everyone, no matter their performance level, has a limited capacity.
Blackberries, iPods, iPads, Facebook, Texting and Email all make communication and catching people in a hurry much easier (usually). The problem is we are all going non-stop and the pace of life swirls around us – sometimes even overwhelming us.
The answer is you show, demonstrate, create emotion, and build a connection. A top notch photograph as the focal point of your advertising campaign typically does the trick.
Super Bowl Champion Coach Bill Belichick teaches the concept that “ideas should be innocent until proven guilty”. It’s true – really. People are too often afraid of ideas.
It’s especially true in your advertising. Too often businesses or organizations just add music – almost as an afterthought – to their commercial messages.
Many of you know before I started this company my main responsibility was to recruit, build and develop sales talent at the advertising departments of television stations.
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