Boil Your Frog and Other Marketing Strategies

You may have heard this one before. There is a story about a pan of water on a stove top and inside sits a frog. The water starts out at room temperature. Someone enters the kitchen and slowly begins to increase the temperature of the water, but just 1° at a time over several hours. The frog notices nothing due to the length of time it takes for the water to heat up.  The water gets hotter and hotter until it reaches 211°. Still the frog sits there. But what happens when one more degree is added? It changes everything! Ribbit!

What temperature are you operating your business at? Room temperature? 211°?

Do you even have a pan on the stove?

What is the one thing that you could do to raise the temperature of your business? It could be personal development. It could be writing a real marketing plan. It could be hiring an employee. If you are not sure what that one thing is, take a look around at some other business owners who are very successful and find out what they are doing to raise the bar for themselves.

Personal development always leads to business development. You cannot have business development without it. I always recommend a business coach to my clients. It increases their accountability and their chances of success. They will always see improvements in their personal life as well.

Writing a real marketing plan is one of the most effective ways to increase the laser focus of your business activities. Our company offers a marketing map which is a marketing plan that offers flexibility and control to the business owner and identifies many of the items that fall into a traditional marketing plan, without ending up on a shelf.

If you find yourself completely bogged down with work all the time, it may be time to consider hiring in employee. Talk about risk! Do it right and hire a payroll company like Paychex to facilitate the payroll process. Then train the person correctly and give them work. Now you have time to increase your sales to pay for that person. Being in employer is a huge responsibility and will instantly step up your game professionally.

Sometimes, like the frog, we do not know how close we are to reaching that one degree that makes all the difference. What can you do to bring your business to the next level? Call us at Leap Year Marketing to do some coaching and goal setting. THAT will get you boiling, I guarantee it!

Joanne Randall

724-603-LEAP

joanne@leapyearmarketing.com

Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, Marketing Mojo Radio

What is the Big Deal About Social Media?

With all the items that fall under the umbrella of marketing I have found that people are most fascinated with social media. I think this is mainly because it is so popular in the mainstream and yet so simple it makes me wonder why no one came up with the idea sooner.

Jump on!

So why is social media so popular? My theory is that people crave relationships, friendships, and leadership. Deep down we all want to feel that we are needed and that we have value.

I believe that people spend time on social media to fill those gaps in their lives that are not being filled by people in their physical space. This is important because social media is the most effective way businesses can talk to people about solving their problems. If the business understands human nature and the psychology of purchasing habits, they can be extremely effective in growing their sales.

You may not care about someone posting that they are STILL waiting for their Maytag repair man to show up, but you should care that there are businesses out there not providing good customer service and customers react by posting it to the world.

How much time do you spend on Social Media each week for personal reasons? How about for your business? I would like to know.

Joanne Randall

Leap Year Marketing

joanne@leapyearmarketing.com

724-603-5327

www.leapyearmarketing.com

Do You Know What Good Customer Service Feels Like?

Why do we bother to create a positive customer service experience?

All buying habits are psychological in nature. Sure, people need or want to buy something because of the product, but where they buy and if they return are based on their customer service experience during and after the transaction. We want to be able to control the loyalty of our customers. So how does that happen?

Excellent customer service LEADS TO Customer Satisfaction, which ultimately drives loyalty, sales, and the bottom line.

You probably remember a time when you experienced good customer service. That is because every customer service experience is just that - an experience. I could give you a textbook definition of customer service, but you would likely forget it and just remember an experience you had and how it made you feel.  The good news is that you can control the experiences your customers have and therefore create a positive one that will likely bring them back. Remember ALL customer experiences are experiences. Even the good, the bad, the ugly, and the neutral. Let's explore a little.

Bad-Bad experiences are really just experiences that are below the expectations the customer had when they walked in, but still may be somewhat acceptable. This happens when only a small portion of the experience goes awry. You may not  lose the customer for good, but for them to return there will need to be another factor to draw them in, possibly location, or more likely price. Really bad experiences will cost you that customer and will damage your reputation. In the world of Social Media, this is disastrous. People have on average 230 friends on Facebook alone and if they post something about you, you're done. 

Ugly- The difference between BAD and UGLY is that in BAD, there is no real attempt by the company to rectify the situation. In an UGLY experience, you will not see this person again unless you are able to rectify the situation and make it right. This however, does not guarantee the return of the customer, it might save your reputation in the sphere of the customer and they may refrain from telling all their friends about their poor experience. An ugly experience, if handled properly, may end up turning into a great experience if the customer is open. You won't know until it is all over. 

Neutral-This is a very dangerous experience because the business will never know if the customer had a good enough experience to make them come back. A neutral experience is what the customer expected or it was satisfactory. This will not win you loyal customers. If you do not create a compelling reason for them to return, there is a good chance that next time they will go somewhere based on another factor, maybe location or price. Neutral experiences are damaging because there is no added value to their experience that will make you stand out over your competition. 

Good-people may or may not share their experiences, but you have created an experience that their subconscious will remember the next time they need or want to buy something you offer. There will need to be a compelling reason for them to not return. Good, positive experiences even allow for small future mistakes.

What memorable customer experiences have you had? How did they affect your future buying decisions.

As mentioned in my podcast, communication is the real driving factor behind customer service and satisfaction. Tune in to hear the rest of the discussion and visit Leap Year Marketing or Marketing Mojo Radio Facebook pages to tell us about your own experiences.

Joanne Randall

joanne@leapyearmarketing.com

www.leapyearmarketing.com

724-603-LEAP

Marketing Mojo Radio Podcast

Seasons

Happy New Year!

Do you ever feel like you need a fresh start? I know I do.  I love that feeling of setting goals and shedding bad habits in order to move forward.
Most people feel this way around New Year's Eve. That is always a good time to reflect on successes and opportunities from the past year and learn from them.  This is what I would call an annual season. How long does that good feeling last beyond New Year's Eve however? Ask anyone who has made a New Year's resolution to lose weight. I will admit that the 2 to 3 week period following New Year's eve, I am pretty pumped to work toward new goals.
I have found that in addition to the New Year's eve annual season, there are two other seasons in the year that produce the same effect. One is Spring, when Winter finally dies a slow and painful death and we all get outside and in the dirt. The other is Fall, when we are ready to send the kids back to school for a new year of learning and fun. These are the three seasons of fresh starts.
But what if you could regenerate that New Year's resolution feeling more than three times a year?
I have good news. You can!
New Year's is just an arbitrary day that really in itself has no meaning. We tell ourselves that that date means something. Think about it. January 1st is really no different than April 29th. So if we can create that resolution scenario for January 1st, guess what? We can do it for any day of our life. Every day is January 1st.  How awesome is that?!?
Start by asking yourself,"If today were New Year's Eve, what resolutions would I make?" Then decide on one that is significant and go for it. Renew your resolution as often as you need to to keep moving toward the change you are looking for.

Happy New Year!

p.s. Another great way to keep pumped about achieving your goals is by working with a high quality Business Coach. I use a coach and it has made an incredible difference.  Feel free to contact my Coach, John.  www.truechoicecoaching.com or https://www.facebook.com/pages/True-Choice-Coaching/138535236162890. 

Joanne Randall

www.LeapYearMarketing.com

iTunes Marketing Mojo Radio

724-603-LEAP

joanne@leapyearmarketing.com

Business Page "LIKES"

There is a very good reason why businesses should all LIKE business pages of our professional associates. When one business LIKEs another on Facebook, it is considered a professional courtesy. It is what I refer to as a gentle recommendation. It lets other people and businesses know that you recommend the other business from your own business, not just yourself personally. This is just like walking into your client’s office and referring one of your networking group members while you are there. It also reflects your attitude around your business community by showing that you recognize the importance of businesses working together.

So this week, log into your business page as the business (not as yourself personally) and visit pages of businesses that you would recommend. Click the LIKE button to show your support. And while your LIKE button finger is warmed up, if you feel so moved, please visit and LIKE NH Women In Business and Leap Year Marketing.

Marketing Plans and Why You Need One

Marketing Plans are crucial to the success of a business. A common misconception is that they need to be long and complicated. The truth is, marketing plans should change as often as your goals change, which should be every six months. Why six months? Because if you don't achieve some growth goals in six months, consider the goal and reassess your strategy. The point here is that a marketing plan is useless unless it is developed around goals set by the people who work to reach the goals. This includes your employees, so make sure you include them in your goal setting - and your marketing plan. Buy in from them is crucial for success.

Marketing myself

The only way people will sponsor NHWIB is if they get to know me personally (or close to it). So I spend time on FB, my website (the old one), and emails to let people get to know me. I also network like crazy. Someone suggested I interview myself on my show. Not unless I want to bore people to death. Once people get to know me, if they like me, they are more likely to be interested in sponsoring NHWIB. Because they are buying me.