Cr82bGr8 - Create To Be Great: Coaching and Speaking

Amazing!

7/7/2014

What will it take to get to Amazing?

Many promotional products professionals are really getting beat up on price and see the industry’s products as becoming commodities. Many people tell me that their customers are demanding them to match or beat impossibly low prices. What is happening out there?

The answers lie in the fact that if you are not growing, you’re dying. It’s brutal, but true. Buyers assume that you will give them quality, service and a low price. The assumption is that you will deliver goods as pictured or promised on time done right. This is the first level of a transaction based sale between a buyer and a seller.

When you raise your performance and give more, you gain a happy customer who expects that you will perform and provide them with peace of mind. Your customer expects and trusts you to make them look good.

What if you can get your client to be impressed? What would you have to do to impress them? Perhaps you’ve anticipated their need. You may have researched their market position and brand and created some really custom, personalized and “wow-worthy” design. Your client is impressed. They will tell others.

But if you want to move to the fourth level of customer experience? What will it take to amaze your client and seal your partnership? If you want to be an integral part of your client’s business, to be the go-to resource and problem solver — you need to be nothing short of amazing. Amazing is hard work. Not everyone can be amazing. Can you?

These are the four levels of customer service.

Your buyers assume that you will deliver.
Your customers develop expectations of how you will deliver.
Your clients are impressed with your professional service.
Your loyal clients are amazed by what you do, how you do it and just how good you are.

Here’s the thing. What customers are amazed by today will just impress them tomorrow and by next week they’ll expect it and by next month, it will be assumed.

Creating value and being the best is a journey. You need to get up every morning and ask yourself. “How Can I Be Amazing?”

3 Free Power Words You Should Use Now

4/16/2014

You are a marketer and you are a sales professional. If that is a true statement then you use words to market and to sell. Words have power and you need to use them properly. Weak words equal weak results. Powerful words create powerful results. Choose your words carefully whether spoken or written. Here are three that you should use and use to their full effect.

YOU. Everyone cares most about themselves. They care about their life, their job, their problems and their reputation. Make everything you do in sales or marketing about them. Take a look at your elevator speech, your pre-approach letters, your website, your brochures. Rewrite everything and remove the “I”s and the “we”s and replace them with you and your. Make it about them. YOU will see better results.
NOW. Create a sense of urgency. A related word, “Urgent” is powerful as well. Make your message relevant in this moment. Make your solutions active in the present. People want action now, not empty promises for something in the future. People hate to miss out and NOW and Urgent create a sense of a limited time offer. Everyone is wired to care more about losing things than gaining them. “Instantly” is another cousin in this family of creating the sense of immediacy. We live in a world of instant gratification. Creating a sense of urgency NOW will create action.
FREE. The number one word in advertising and sales and I so wanted to leave it off this list. But how can I leave it off? Everyone wants something for free. It’s a powerful word that will grab your customer’s attention every time. It can even change their buying habits. It never loses its power. It’s also very relevant to what we sell in the promotional products world. We create FREE offers for our clients, thus empowering them to use the most powerful word in all of sales and marketing. Do not assume that your customers already know this. Show them how they can use the power of FREE by offering a promotional products to reward a new customer, to create loyalty among existing customers, to draw traffic to their business or their trade show booth, to get people to sign up for their newsletter or opt-in to their email or any number of great objectives. You may even want to offer them something for Free for ordering from you.

5 Problems You Can Solve as a Promotional Professional

3/4/2014

Here’s the deal. Problem solvers always make money! No matter what the industry. No matter what the economy is doing. No matter what. If you can get out of the product selling business and into the problem solving business, you will always be in demand and you will always be able to make money. Here are five problems that you can solve.

Declining or stagnate employee morale. Companies who have employees who are not happy and not engaged with the company are companies that need a solution. Unhappy employees are likely to turn away customers. They are likely to leave the company resulting in replacement and retraining costs. They are more likely to be injured on the job and take more sick time. Create programs that reward the behaviors that will turn this around. People need to have friends at work and to speak positively about each other and about the company. Engaged employees feel appreciated and can turn a company around. Research has shown that companies that rank among the best places to work outperform others financially. (Commit to learn about Employee Engagement).
Increasing health insurance premiums and workmen compensation rates. Healthy employees save a company thousands of dollars in health insurance costs. Safe workers save their companies millions of dollars in insurance premiums and liability costs. You can solve this problem by recommending programs that reward healthy living and safe work habits. Wellness programs provide rewards for smoking cessation, weight loss and commitment to fitness programs. Safety programs are all about catching people exhibiting safe work practices and rewarding them. Both types of programs are more effective when communicated with promotional products and when they have meaningful rewards. (Commit to learn about Wellness Programs and Safety Programs).
Lack of Customer Loyalty. Many companies are looking for ways to get customers to order and reorder consistently without shopping around every time they are in the market. Loyalty programs recognize and reward shoppers with they be distributors, dealers, retailers or end users for making purchases. Problem solvers in this area put together programs based on frequency of purchase, size of purchase and purchase cycles to continuously engage buyers. Most of us are familiar with airline and hotel loyalty programs. Apply these principles to business to business opportunities using promotional products and premiums as the incentives. (Commit to learn about Loyalty Programs).
Dwindling Trade Show Effectiveness. Many organizations exhibit at business to business or business to consumer trade shows. These face to face sales opportunities can be extremely effective as they bring buyers and sellers together in an environment where the buyer can experience the product and the people behind it. They are also very expensive. The cost per impression of this medium may be the highest of the available options. The cost of customer contact however is extremely low when compared to individual sales calls. The trade show exhibitor has the expenses of the booth space, the booth cost, shipping, personnel, travel, hotels and entertainment. How can they maximize their return on investment? They can get the most bang for their buck if they can make sure they see the right people and spend quality time with them, can tell them their story and make sure they remember them after the show. You can help them by structuring the right invitations to the right people to get them to attend the show and actually talk to the exhibitor. You can help them achieve this by recommending ideas that will make their theme memorable, that will turn their exhibit time into an experience and by providing lasting reminders of that experience. (Commit to learn about Trade Show Marketing).
Turning strangers into friends and friends into customers and customers into raving fans. The new definition of marketing describes the number one problem for any organization. How do you make your offering likable and approachable? How do you earn the trust and business of your new friends? How do you deliver an experience and results that make them want to tell their friends? If you frame your presentations around these three objectives, you will become not just a swag salesperson, but a professional marketer. We make friends by caring about others, by being authentic, by showing interest in the needs and aspirations of others. It is exactly the same for any business or organization. By recommending products that are relevant to the needs of the target end users, you help your clients be likable, approachable and friend-worthy. Recommend purchase incentives that help your customers’ prospects comfortable and eager to do business with them. These would be items that are desirable and that take away some of the risk of that initial transaction. Ask your customers what they are doing to make every customer interaction a memorable experience and make suggestions for what they can do to make their customers want to recommend them to their friends. (Commit to learn about Marketing and Advertising).

If you’re willing to commit yourself to continuing education by spending an hour per week of research and reading, to attend the great education and professional development being offered by your regional association, by PPAI, by ASI and even your suppliers, and by logging in to the many available webinars around these topics, you can become a problem solver. If you choose just one of these five problems and commit to becoming the best problem solver in your world, you will rock your world. You will rock your sales and you will rock your income. Find the Pain. Be the Aspirin.

6 Clients You Need to Fire Now!

2/18/2014

Many of us hold the mistaken belief that the more clients we have the more money we make. That is a myth that does not serve us well. My first great breakthrough on my quest to become a multimillion dollar producer was that to get to the next level, I needed to fire the deadwood out of my client list. The first year that I did this, I was finally able to break into the seven figure territory. Pruning the client list allows you to provide better serve your good accounts and to fully realize their potential. It also allows you to be filling your prospect pipeline with more good prospects and do a better job of getting into the types of clients that you want. Here are some of the clients you might want to fire.

“I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today” OK, I realize probably nobody under 40 years old understands that reference to a Popeye character (Google it and find some YouTube videos if you don’t understand the reference). Usually, they were the big clients but there were people who were constantly asking for no-profit or at-a-loss favors from me today with the promise of the big order tomorrow. Guess what, tomorrow never comes. If your client is unwilling to allow you to charge a fair price for even the smallest order or favor, let them go. Fire them.

They won’t pay you on time. If your customers won’t pay you within your terms, they have broken the contract. Let them go. You have a responsibility to your suppliers to pay them according to terms. You have to pay your employees every pay day. Payment terms are called terms because they are the basis of your agreement. If you agree to longer terms than the traditional 30 days, that is your business. But if your terms are net 60 or net 90 and the client is still not paying within those terms — fire them.

“Thanks for the recommendation and the six samples and the design, I think we’ve figured out what we want now, so I’ll just have to get a couple other quotes from other agencies.” First of all, shame on you for not making it clear that your research, your artist and your samples do not come free. Include a statement on every quote or proposal that you own the ideas and designs that you submit and that services such as samples and freight for them will be billed if the client chooses to source elsewhere. Base your hourly rate on what your overhead is and quote it. State clearly that your price includes all of your development charges. The first time they do this to you send them an invoice for your time and charges. The second time or the first time they don’t pay you for your work — fire them.

You feel your stomach tie into knots every time they call or you call on them. Since this is a family publication, I’ll need to alter the wording of one of my longstanding principles—”Life is too short to deal with sphincter muscles”. If someone makes you feel uncomfortable because of the way they treat you and other people. Fire Them!

They do not treat you or your people with respect. You are only a vendor, a necessary evil to them. They withhold information and don’t give you enough background in order for you to do the best job possible for them. They won’t share their budget and make you guess at what they want, why the want it, when they need it. If they swear at you or an employee or show no respect for your professionalism — Fire them.

They don’t let you make a fair profit. I fired a company after they spent more than $2 million dollars with me. They wanted to dictate profit margins, payment terms and wouldn’t agree to pay for my creative and project expertise. A good friend of mine also fired an account whose brand name would make most of you salivate. Why? Because they set up everything in their favor. You need to know what you are worth and you need to know the profitability of each account. If they won’t let you make what you are worth — Fire Them.

Take the Donald Trump approach to your clients and just fire them if they are not letting you make money. Focus on your great clients and grow within their companies. Find companies that are listed as “Great Places to Work”. In my experience, if they treat their employees well, they will also treat their suppliers well. Remember why you are in this business. Have fun, build relationships and get paid for the value that you create.

7 Ways to Create A Social Media Presence

2/11/2014

You’re not still asking why or whether you need to have a social media presence are you? Real quickly now. You need a social media presence because that’s where your new customers are and it’s how they will find you, trust you and try you. Ignore it at your own peril. My definition of marketing is — Turning Strangers Into Friends, Friends Into Customers and Customers into Raving Fans. Your social media presence allows you to do just that. Here are seven tips...

1. Make learning Social Media Marketing a priority. Your town probably has a big building in it with lots and lots of books. It’s kind of like Blockbuster used to be except with books instead of videos and you can check them out for free. Get reacquainted with your local library. The internet is also your friend. Google, Yahoo or Bing a phrase such as “How to Learn Social Media” and pick out some great articles to read. Check out your regional trade association’s, ASI’s and PPAI’s pro development offerings. We have several great professionals in our industry sharing their knowledge on these topics. Get your own domain name and website that you can use Social Media to drive traffic to and to improve your rankings on search engines. Learn about SEO - it’s not that hard to do it yourself - and optimize your website. You want to create a presence so that when someone in your market enters: Promotional Products - (Your Town Here) into Google that your website comes up in the top half of the page.

2. Update Your LinkedIn Profile and Make Connections. In the past, successful sales people had their Rolodex and it contained all of their contacts names, addresses and phone numbers. It was one of the most valuable business tools that they owned. Get on LinkedIn today. If you have a profile but haven’t used LinkedIn, get back on there and first update your profile and polish it. Make so that it leaves the impression that you want your number one prospect to have of you if they were to look for you. Here’s the thing. They will look there. Make LinkedIn Connections. Use the “find connections” tools that the site offers and send out invitations to connect. Watch your network grow! It is amazing just how many people we are all connected to. Look at your friends and acquaintances connections and connect with the people that you know from their lists too. You might also take a look at some of your customers’ and prospects’ profiles for ideas for whom you should invite connections.

3. Use LinkedIn Right. There are several ways to build your presence now that you’ve updated your profile and have a growing network. First of all be aware that Google loves LinkedIn. You will notice that when you Google yourself (it’s okay, we all do) that BOOM your profile just came up near the top of page one. Second, explore the search capabilities. You can find people by location, by job title, by company. Use this as a prospecting tool to not only identify potential clients, but also to identify people in your network who may be able to provide you with at best an introduction and at worst a common ground conversation starter. Next get into the LinkedIn Groups that will highlight your level of expertise. Sign up for notifications and contribute to discussions. Pick groups where your best customers and prospects hang out and they’ll soon see you as an expert.

4. Use Facebook Right. If you are going to use Facebook for building your business and your social media presence, keep personal and business separate. Either use two separate pages one for personal and one for business, or make sure that all of your posts are of the type that you would want your best customer or prospect to see. Post things about your company, your people, any awards or accomplishments. Feature profiles of your customers and highlight their successes. (Particularly their successes using one of your services!) Keep your posts interesting, informative and valuable. Use it to promote your presence on other social media channels like YouTube, LinkedIn, your blog, your podcasts. Use Facebook to create your online personality. Be interesting and likable.

5. You can know own your own television station and your own radio station. Have some fun with video and create a YouTube channel. Record yourself, your employees, your customers, your suppliers having fun with promotional products. If you’ve got more of a face for radio, you can create your own broadcast of podcasts on iTunes. Once again, it’s all about the content. Make sure you have something worth watching or listening to and topics that people will actually search for online. Your video on how to select the right giveaways for a golf outing may show up on a prospects search for information on just that topic and BOOM! you’ve got yourself a new client.

6. You also can publish your own newspaper. It’s called a Blog. There are several great platforms available for free (I like Wordpress and blogger). This is where you can use that great domain name that your bought for yourself and create an informative, valuable website. I’ve heard it joked that blog stands for Better Listings on Google. That is one of the benefits of blogging. Your name will come up higher on searches when you’re a blogger. Another great benefit is that the internet is forever. Three years from now, a prospect might find the article that you wrote yesterday on how to plan a company picnic or other valuable content.

7. Remember this is Cocktail Party Marketing. I hope you wouldn’t go to a cocktail party among both strangers and friends and begin shouting out that you’re offering end quantity pricing, free set-up charges or twenty-five percent off on coffee mugs this week. Social Media Marketing is about having conversations.

Sounds like a lot of work, doesn’t it? It is work, but if you get consistent at it, it will pay off with customers finding you which is a lot more satisfying than cold calling. The rules of marketing have changed. Change with the times and you’ll find new relevance and new business coming to you.

8 Questions to Ask Every Client

1/6/2014

If you want better answers, ask better questions. It is impossible to serve your clients and create value for them unless you have a thorough understanding of their organization. Information gathering should be personal, conversational, tailored to the person you are speaking with in the moment. When and how you ask should also be based on how well-known the company is, the position of the person you are meeting with and how much pre-approach research you have done. I recommend that you use the internet, the library, LinkedIn and other sources to gather information before your meeting. Some of these questions you may already know the answer to and you will be able to impress the prospect with your diligence.

What is your primary mission? Try to find out why they are in business. The why will determine the what. Let me explain. If you called on Apple Computer with the presumption that they were in the computer business, you wouldn’t ask the right questions or get the right answers. Larger companies will have their mission statement posted on their website, in their annual report, perhaps even hanging in their lobby. Pay attention to the words that they use and incorporate those words into your language.
How do you go to market? Find out how they reach their final end buyer. They may sell through multiple channel partners such as distributors who in turn sell to dealers who in turn sell to the ultimate consumer. Some may have brick and mortar stores and others an online presence and still others a combination.
What is the most unique characteristic of your company? Try to determine what makes them distinctive. How are they different from their competitors? Which leads to..
Who are your competitors? Find out how they rank in their product or service category. Are they the market leader, a new player on the field, a follower? Armed with this information, you can find out what their competitors are doing well and where they may be vulnerable.
What trade shows do you attend? Which trade shows do you exhibit at? What trade publications do you subscribe to? With this information, you can take several business building steps. You can subscribe to their trade publications which will give you a feel for what their industry problems, challenges and trends are looking like and give you more information about the prospect and their competitors. It may also give you the opportunity attend one of their industry trade shows where again, you get a big picture perspective on their industry as well as pick up additional leads for potential clients. And, of course, it allows you to write down the names and dates of the shows that they will be exhibiting at so that you can prepare a proposal for them AFTER you know why and what you should be suggesting.
What is the biggest business challenge facing you right now? You want to find out where their pain is. Are they losing market share? Facing dwindling consumer loyalty? Growing too fast? Need to find new markets? Has the internet and technology shifts helped them or hurt them? You need to find the pain and be the aspirin. Listen carefully for how they characterize their problems.
What does success look like? What are your objectives? How will things look when they are accomplished? How do you want people to feel about your organization? What is getting in the way from accomplishing these goals? What resources are needed to reach them?
What was your greatest (sales, marketing, advertising, human resources, public relations — you choose which one or ones you want to ask about — success? And what was the worst? You want to find out what has worked and what has not worked. If possible, you want to find out if there was a bad promotional product experience. Knowing what the client felt was the greatest will give you an idea of what they look for in a successful promotion. Knowing what they think is the worst might prevent you from walking in with a proposal that has zero chance of being accepted.

When you ask better questions, you get to know where you can be looking for opportunities. You can proactively recommend programs and solutions aimed at their particular problems. When a client sees that you are focused on solving their problems, that you have put some good thinking into their challenges and that you provide solid marketing advice, they see a professional. You will find that even if your proposal is not quite ready for prime time, that they will respect how you think and will open up even more with you about what they are working on and what projects are in the pipeline.

For better answers, ask better questions.

Become a Marketer

1/28/2012

Become a Marketer. The 4 P's of Marketing Plus.
     Throughout my volunteer service to the industry's association, many people have made comments about the demographics of our practitioners. When you look out over a promotional products trade show floor, you may be struck by the lack of diversity, by the balance of attendance by gender, and by the relative aging of the people in the industry. That is not to say that we have no young people. I'm excited about the crop of new, young energy entering our ranks and stepping up into leadership roles. But the fact remains that for the most part, a good number of us have celebrated at least one birthday where our more cruel friends have brought black balloons and "over the hill" pins.
     I've always pointed out that for a large number of people, our industry was not their first career. Among our ranks you'll find retired military, parents returning to the workforce, former bankers, former teachers and former corporate ladder climbers. All of whom have discovered our wild, wacky, crazily creative, frighteningly frustrating, ultimately rewarding and addictive world of stuff! So for many of us, marketing may be a new discipline and advertising something we paid attention to only during one big football game per year. (Go Giants, Go Patriots - I don't have dog in this year's fight). I think this is why my CAS-required courses, Advertising and Marketing Overview Parts 1 and 2 are so wildly popular (and being required also helps!).
     In classic marketing curriculum, four critical elements are identified as being components of marketing:
Product: There must be a product or service for marketing to take place. We may take it for granted that our product is our ability to source products for our clients. What is it that you are offering? A product, service or offering must meet a need in the marketplace. How much time have you spent really digging into defining what need you are filling in the marketplace? What problem do you solve? Why are you the best solution to that problem? What pain do you take away for your clients? Why are you the best pain reliever? Find the Pain. Be the Aspirin (or Tylenol, or Advil, or Morphine)! If you can solve problems and take away pain, you have a viable product. If you can solve problems and take away pain for clients, they will never shop you, will be loyal to you and will view you as an indispensible member of their team.
Price: Every marketer must have a pricing strategy. For Wal-Mart, this strategy is lowest price, always. For Nordstrom, it is never discount except for two and only two sales per year. For credit card companies it may be 0% interest for the first year (and then 25% thereafter, lol). What is your pricing strategy? I contend that just as product sourcing is not a good product, the lowest price is not a good pricing strategy. Having the lowest price is a race to the bottom and a zero sum game. Zero sum game is a fancy business writer phrase meaning there are no winners. (Now if I can somehow work in paradigm into this article, I'll have a MBA-speak bonus blog!). Define your pricing strategy understanding that it is not how much that you sell that matters. It's how much you can keep. Profit is the life blood of your business. But profit must be earned. You must be solving problems and adding value. See "product" above. Instead of a discount strategy where you reduce the perceived value of your offerings, you could try a value-added strategy. A value-added strategy always gives a little more — whether that more is service, product, measurement, publicity, or other support you can offer to solve problems and relieve pain.
Place: Traditionally, our "Place" has been in our buyers' offices or maybe a showroom. Today, many buyers prefer the place be on their computer screens. How have you adapted to that shift? How is your "place" defined? How do you set it apart from anything your buyers have ever seen before? Rain Forest Cafe, took a restaurant and turned it into a jungle adventure experience. Is there a way you can turn your showroom into an experience? Distinguishing yourself with ultra creative open houses, with a trade show experience in a parallel target industry, with a web experience that makes your clients' jobs easier are a few ideas of how you can work on your third "P" and make Place a competitive advantage. Even your visits to your clients can be a Place Experience if you focus on how you can bring positivity, creativity, innovation and smiles into their offices every time you visit.
Promotion: How are you making your clients' and prospects aware of the powerful solutions that you offer? You are in the promotion business. Hopefully, you are not just in the products business. As a promotion expert, your work on your own promotion marketing should be communicating constantly that you know what you're doing. If you can market yourself creatively, your prospects will see what you can do, will recognize how you caught their attention and will want you to do for them what you do for yourself. If you want to sell more trade show traffic building solutions, put on a trade show or participate in one and show your clients what you've got. If you want to sell more direct mail campaigns incorporating creative products, put together a direct mail campaign for your distributorship. If you want to sell loyalty programs, put together a loyalty program to reward your best customers. If you want your clients to have a promotion budget and spend it, have yourself a promotion budget and spend it.
     These are the classic four 'P's of Marketing. I like to add People, Purpose and Passion for a total of seven. When you get very clear about the first four and engage your people around your vision and give them something more than business like a Purpose or Meaning to their daily efforts, you can inspire a Passion that will drive your business to new levels of success.

QR Codes - tips for effective use!

6/15/2011

More than 30 Ways to Use QR Codes
My newest presentation, 30 Ways to Use QR Codes shows you how to create codes, where to find readers, where to find generators and over thirty powerful applications so that you can becme the expert for your clients. (Ask your Regional Association or Principal to schedule it).
QR Codes and their Microsoft-owned cousins, MS Tags, can be added to nearly promotional product with a large enough imprint area. They bring new relevance to lots of old media and they provide an exciting way to create unique consumer experiences. There are a few guidelines that should be followed however to ensure successful usage.
1) There should be a call to action! You need to give the consumer a reason to interact and engage.
2) You need to be adding value — free downloads, an entertaining video, a coupon, a free admission, a free gift (a promotional product, of course), how-to demos.
3) Make sure the content that the code is driving to has been optimized for mobile usage.
4) TEST. Test with different phones (Android, iPhone, etc). Test with different Readers. Make sure the experience is right!
5) Train. Your own people need to become familiar with this new technology so they can service what you sell. Your clients' people need to be trained to respond to questions from their customers, and they need to be aware of the promotion.
6) Use a URL shortener to simplify your code and to make it easier and faster to read! (I personally like bit.ly)
7) Make sure it's large enough to scan and has enough white space around it.
8) Tell the audience how to use them and what to expect. This is new technology to many people and you can help educate and train.

More on QR Codes (from my May Newsletter - contact me to subscribe)

6/14/2011

More On QR Codes
       By Christmas 2011, one in two Americans will have smart phones. This means that QR Codes and Microsoft Tags will continue to take off. Over the past month there has been a 1600% increase in the number of scans per day according to Scanbuy. Last month, we introduced this subject and suggested more than a dozen uses that will help promotional products distributors create unique coded promotions for clients. (Email me if you missed it and I'll resend you a copy).
   Because up to thirty percent of the code's data can be missing or obstructed and still be scanned, you can add graphics, can add logos, can get creative with the codes. They do not need to be the black and white blob like I'm demonstrating here. You can add color, soften edges, draw outside the box and create unique pieces of QR Code art. Here are some additional creative uses.
   The New York Times Magazine took a photo of a QR code made entirely of balloons. The code drove users to their mobile webpage promoting their 10th Annual Year in Ideas issue. At the Smithonian Natural History Neanderthal exhibit, a Code opens a mobile page that allows you to take a picture of a family member and it shows what the person would look like as a Neanderthal 50,000 years ago.
   Here are three helpful tips:
1) Learn about codes so that you can explain them to your customers and so that you can explain them to the end users. This is still a new technology, so explain how they can get the software and what they will get by scanning the codes.
2) Make sure that the code promotion actually creates value for their trouble. It should enhance the experience, generate a discount or coupon, give them something extra that they can't get anywhere else. Or link them to my LinkedIn page (just kidding).
3. Simply the URL before creating the code. Long URL addresses create difficult to read codes. Use a URL shortener such as bit.ly which both shortens a long URL and automatically generates the code, www.tinyurl.com is another one.

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Advertising and Marketing!

1/28/2011

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Advertising, Marketing, Branding, Promotion and Our Industry, but were afraid to ask! (also known as CAS-Required: Advertising/Marketing Parts 1 and 2)
A New Presentation(s) by Paul Kiewiet!

To steal another industry’s line, “There’s No Business Like Advertising Business!” Aren’t we the luckiest people in the world? When you’re in the ad business you never have to grow up! Yes, the promotional products business is the Advertising Business which is the Marketing Business and in one day — you get to learn about the ups, the downs, the ins and outs of advertising and marketing.

This lively, enlightening, entertaining presentation covers a lot of territory. You will become a better marketer of your own business, a better professional consultant to your clients and you’ll score higher on your CAS Exam too!

In Advertising and Marketing – the original Part 1 and the exciting sequel Part 2 – we will cover the Four P’s of Marketing and what I believe is the new emerging Fifth P (not to be confused with the Black-Eyed Peas). We will define marketing, advertising, branding and distinguish between the various disciplines. We will also explore what goes into effective marketing planning.

Did you know there are at least ten different types of marketing? You will after this session! We’ll talk about old advertising like newspapers and outdoor and new forms like internet and mobile advertising. I’ll even throw in some good news about promotional products as an advertising media. All this in just the first session. Hold on! Part Deux gets even more exciting!

Here comes the Old Spice Guy! Yep. We’re going to look at what makes a successful advertising campaign. You’re going to learn the three “R’s” of Advertising and I’m not talkin’ about readin’, ritin’ and rithmetic! We’ll discover just how important Cost Per Impression is for effective return on investment. All of the background material laid out in Part 1 becomes an “Ah-Ha!” moment as we review other marketing media and just how they relate to promotional products. We’ll get a brief overview of the new discipline called Integrated Marketing Communications and why it is more good news for promotional products. You’ll understand why trade shows should be spelled “O-P-P-O-R-T-U-N-I-T-Y”.

There are three levels of selling and you’ll learn the advantages of each. Plus, as always, I have my own thoughts on this and believe there are actually four levels. So I’ll tell you about that theory too. Then it’s on to my favorite of all subjects and one that I believe passionately about: The Power of Promotional Products! I’ll briefly review how to get the most out of your database, your website and how to become a social marketer. We will also review the keys to more profitability in this business and any business, in this economy and any economy.

Whether you’re working on your certification or whether your looking to improve your skills, you will enjoy this in-depth exploration of Advertising and Marketing!

Paul will be presenting this on March 9 at the OPPA Big Show in Cleveland, OH. To register, visit http://www.oppagroup.com