More Wasted Ad Dollars
I’m reading the Thursady, October 27th, 2005 edition of USA Today. It’s the only newspaper I read and I’m sure bad things would happen if I missed and edition.
I get to page 6A, which is in the main section and I come across a white page entirely devoid of everything except these words:
Dear Ketel One Drinker
If you like our advertising please
continue to buy our product.
If you don’t like our advertising
please continue to buy our product.
What the heck did you hope to gain with this ad ?
Why should I try your product ?
How do I benefit ?
How do you benefit ? You don’t ! The ad agency does ! Them and USA Today.
You didn’t ask for those that don’t consume to try it, so they won’t.
You really didn’t ask the reader to take any action that would benefit you in the slightest.
You wasted your money. Money that I could have spent on more golf clubs. Send it to me and at least I’ll get something from this post, which is probably a better ad than your stupid one. I’ll bet you get more new converts from this post than you will from a full page ad in the A section of USA today on a Thursday.
Please help these people. I’m sure some great ad people read this blog. Give the people some advice and help.
They deserve it after what the agency that did this did to them.
EDIT: Troy White, whose blog is part of the Duct Tape Marketing Blog Network makes some good points that are right in line with what I attempted to say.
You can read his post HERE.
And if you want to learn more about advertising, subscribe to his RSS feed.
Some Assembly Required - Added To My Blog Roll
The Blog Herald, written by Duncan Riley, is doing a 100 Blogs in 100 Days type of promotion. I’ve read every one of the posts so far, but this one’s the best of those, for me.
I’m a sales guy. I like sales guys. I like to read sales guys blogs.
This one, Some Assembly Required, by Thom Singer, is the real deal.
I followed the link, which is exactly what I want you to do, and found the diamond in the coal mine.
Thom had me from the first post I read. After 3-4 posts, I came back here and added him to my Blog Roll.
After 5 posts, the front page goes back to Oct. 19th, I came back here to write a post.
Most sales guys are not good bloggers. I should know, I’m a prime example. But Thom is a rare kind of guy. Author, blogger, networker, sales guy…he’s a 5 tool player.
Life’s tough…blog hard Thom !
Here’s a tip for those that wonder if they should click thru…Build your network before you need it.
Thanks for the post, Duncan.
Blog For Sale - Simplenomics
I was just adding another of our blogs to the services at Technorati and I came across this cool tool.
You enter your domain name/URL and it will tell you how much your blog is worth.
As of this moment, Simplenomics is for sale if anyone wants to pay what they say it’s worth.
Here’s the cool little box for you to see the great news about my new selling price.
My blog is worth $4,516.32.
How much is your blog worth?
Give me your thoughts on the momentous occasion and if you have a blog, go see what you’re worth.
Probably more than me.
The First Office Supplies Blog - Office Freaks
In only a few short hours, the world is going to reverberate to the thunder of the world’s newest, most anticipated, soon to be most talked about blog - OfficeFreaks !
Go by and give it a look before all the bandwidth is gone. It’s hot and it’s gonna stay that way !
If you live in a cubicle…
If you quake at the site of the delivery guy/gal…
If you love a great pen…
If you curl up in a big, leather chair and love it…
If you can’t stand to see the last ink cartridge get used…
If you go gaga over gizmo’s…
Then you need to run, don’t walk, to Office Freaks !
The new office supplies player in town !
The first blog about office supplies !
Checklist For Reviewing Your Blog
Today on SuccessfulBlog, Liz Strauss gives you a COMPLETE checklist for making sure your blog is reader oriented, not blogger oriented.
Liz says,
” Humans have unconscious tendencies. We do lots of the things we like to do and ignore the things we don’t. This makes for a blog that looks great from our point of view, but can leave gaping holes–holes that our readers see, holes they probably won’t tell us about. “
There are 10 bulleted points for you to think over and then leave her a comment and help out all the other readers with your wit and wisdom.
Tell her Mike sent you !
Make A Damn Decision
Today, on Bob Parson’s blog, Hot Points, Bob brings up the topic of making a decision. Quickly.
His headline, which quotes George S. Patton is, ” A good plan executed violently executed today is much better than a perfect plan tomorrow. “
I used to work for a CEO who did not think along this line. His mantra was more like, ” Let’s wait until there’s only one choice left and then jump on it. ”
It put his employess, sales people in particular, behind their competitors on more than one occasion.
I tired of the inability to get in line with what our industry needed us to do, and I left. I’m in a better place now and he’s missing a $3 million a year salesman.
Bob say’s ” I have always been known for making very quick decisions. I seldom spend a prolonged amount of time agonizing or pouring through voluminous amounts of information. Quite often after being apprised of the salient information relevant to any business decision — I usually know what to do. ”
One day, my old CEO asked me some questions about what I thought we should do about some of the happenings in our industry. I answered him each time as soon as the question was out of his mouth.
His reply was, ” You didn’t even think about those questions before you answered them.”
My reply was one that he didn’t appreciate. ” Has it ever occurred to you that I process information that quickly ? ”
I guess he thought I wasn’t capable of having already thought about those situations before his questions. I prided myself on being way ahead of the curve and that put me too far out of his grasp for him to handle.
I thought I knew every little thing that was going to happen before it happened. If I was ever surprised by which way the market tilted, it mad me work harder and spread my network of contacts even farther, so as to not have that happen again.
Even today, on the golf course, if I over-think a shot, it’s usually a bad shot waiting to happen.
Here’s what you need to do to make sure you don’t get paralysis by analysis.
1) Trust your gut instincts. They will rarely lead you astray.
2) Gather enough info to make the decision and then make it. Don’t get too much info, just enough to get it over with.
3) Be willing to be wrong and then adjust. Life’s all about adjusting.
4) Listen to those who should know more than you and consult those people that are closest to the heart of the matter.
5) Stay on top of your business by reading for more hours than you watch television.
What can you add to this list ?
What advice can you give to those that have a hard time making a decision ?
The Selling Power Of Handwritten Notes
Here’s the links to 2 posts that I just read. They are both powerful case studies for handwritten notes.
The first I read at Duct Tape Marketing, by John Jantsch. It was referring to a post by David V. Lorenzo.
In his post, David says,
” I decided to try a little experiment. I went through a couple of weeks of local periodicals and I picked out people that were featured in articles and I send them each a handwritten congratulations note. I said something to the effect – “I saw the article on your business in XYZ Magazine. Congratulations on your success. I’d love to speak with you some time to hear the story of how you got to where you are.” I sent twenty of these notes. “
Want to know how it turned out ? Go visit David’s blog, read the rest of the post and subscribe to his blog’s feed. I did.
The second post I read was on the Church of the Customer blog. Jackie Huba tells us about her experience with Natalie from her local J. Crew store.
Jackie says,
” How does a $800 million company connect personally with customers?
Handwritten notes is a nice start. “
Go by and read how they do it and subscribe to their blog.
Now, what are we gonna do with this ?
Here’s a few ideas to start and I’d like for you to help me out with what you do or what you think you could do with handwritten notes.
1) Send a thank you to every customer who buys from you on your slowest day of the week. Offer them a 15% dicount that’s only good on that day of the week.
This is a big draw for those that make their living doing hair, cleaning teeth and other personal services businesses.
2) Don’t have enough time to write all these ? Grab an inexpensive little digital recorder, ” speak ” the notes and then have someone else transcribe them for you. ALWAYS double check them before you mail them.
3) Send one to every customer whose purchases exceed an amount that you set or who allow you to exceed your average gross margin. I love customers who don’t beat me up everytime we do business.
I don’t mind paying a bit more for good service. In fact I like to buy from someone who I know will take care of me. Calling or driving around with the intention of saving a nickel doesn’t appeal to me. Calling a business and checking their prices, but never buying from them will not get you a good deal. Buying from a salesperson repeatedly gets you a good deal.
What can you add to this ?
Fear Is Not To Be Feared
I jus read a post on workboxers, by Scrivs. He spoke of fear and competition. I love both of them. As a matter of fact, without both, I’d be worthless as a salesman. Really. I’d play golf every day, instead of 2-3 times a week ( kidding Boss ).
I love to win. I love to beat people. Hell, I love competing against myself. I usually win…and lose, when I play me.
Back in ‘97, I took a position in a new city, yet within my industry. I asked around and found out who the ” big dog ” was. Was. WAS !
I went to his office and asked to see him. I introduced myself and informed him of his soon to be declining sales. Sorry, I said, but there’s a new ” Big Dawg ” in town.
” When you get up, ” I said, ” I will have been up, and out, for 2 hours. When you quit, I’ll be working for 2 more hours. ”
” Don’t you have a life ? “, he asked.
” Yes, ” I said, ” taking all your customers and calling Allied Van Lines for you, is my life. ”
Do you think that took guts ? Nah, just sheer stupidity. Or an intense desire to force myself to work like a dog and setting the bar high enough to make it hurt a little.
Don’t ever be afraid. Of anything. Maybe 6 years as an Airborne Infantryman helped me, but you can be just as fearless. Just force yourself into a situation that will require you to get a little bit outside of your comfort zone and then climb up to the ring and grab it. I’ve done it several thousand times, it feels like.
All that can happen is that you have to adjust the height at which you set the bar. Failure isn’t adjusting, failure is never trying.
Thanks Scrivs. I’m not sure I’d have ever wrote that without having read your post.
I’d have been scared 
Why Do Bloggers Ignore Those Who Comment ?
Here’s a question for the blogosphere.
Why do some bloggers ignore those who comment on their blogs ?
Can it be sheer ignorance ?
Well, if it is, here’s a message to those of you who do it - STOP IGNORING YOUR CUSTOMERS !
I spend my day finding customers who are being ignored or taken for granted. They are very easy to switch over to my company’s services.
Your readers ( customers ) are easily led away from your services, also. They will not stick around and be made to feel unmwanted.
There are about a gazillion blogs out there and there’s more coming every day, so if you want to post for the sake of your mommy and your ugly sister reading, go ahead, but there won’t be any other readers for you to run off.
Can it be that they don’t want to get involved ?
If that’s the reason, why didn’t you write a book instead of a blog ?
Here in the blogosphere, we talk back to you and expect you to respond to us.
If your post invokes a response, somebody out there will let you know how they feel. If you don’t like it, don’t post anything worth reading and we’ll go away.
Can it be that they don’t read their posts and see that they have comments ?
Gimme a break ! Most of the bloggers out there are their own best customer. They click over to their blog about 6 times per hour and they call their mommies and tell them that they wrote another post.
Why do they ignore commenters ?
I don’t really know the answer, so why don’t you tell me what you think the reasons are.
How To Get More Traffic To Your Blog
My blogging friend Paul Chaney has asked a question about blog traffic in a post on his blog. ( You can see the post by clicking on his name. )
I’m curious myself, so I’m gonna ask the question here and will send a free ebook to the Top 5 suggestions.
Leave a comment here, do a post on your blog, use trackback, whatever. Just give me an idea I can use and you’re entered.
Here’s the question:
What’s the fastest, easiest and most effective way you know of to drive a semi-massive wave of targeted readers to this blog ?
Ready? Set….Go !
EDIT:
I just read a post on Blogging Help, by Arieanna Foley. I found it by reading Darren’s post on ProBlogger.
Arieanna describes how she goes about getting traffic.
Here’s a few tidbits for you from her post:
-Write 25-40% original content. For some blogs this will mean reading news feeds, as well as other blogs, to catch news first. You can also consider non-RSS content research to find items or to connect the dots between topics.
-Use pictures. They draw the eye. Look on Flickr or Google Images. Take what is Creative Commons, but be liberal with your link of thanks. Ask when unsure.
-Know your area bloggers and link to them. Make sure to comment too.
-Send emails to big blogs in your area. Pitch a story, write something interesting about your blog, and make that link prominent.
She’s got a good post going, drop by a leave her some ideas and let’s share the blog love.
