All Posts by Chris

Nostalgia: Remembering the Past

Nostalgia does not have a good reputation.  Many people see it as sentimental, harking back to a golden era that never existed.  So, how can it be an element of  value?

What is It?

Usually people think of nostalgia as longing for things past.  It is a pursuit for older people who remember happier times.  Some industries trade on such longings.

There is a sense that nostalgia is somehow misleading, viewing the past through rose-tinted spectacles.  We like to think things were better once and the modern world is going to the dogs.  I don’t encourage this.  It may be legitimate to run 60s discos or tea dances but it seems to me a dead-end.

But perhaps there is a place for nostalgia in the world of design.  Many tools and other artefacts evolved because they were effective.  It’s a fine line between evolving effectiveness and locking in poor design principles because people like them.

Value for the Client

Perhaps the best present I ever bought was for a friend interested in the Bloomsbury Group, a group of artists post-WW1.  I found a single volume in a second-hand bookshop of photos of members of the group.  My friend was delighted, he had no idea such a book existed.

Perhaps there are principles that look to the past and learn from what worked.  There is a something pleasurable in handling something well-made to a traditional design.

Such designs are collectible and many have an interesting story.  Such objects sit somewhere between a work of art and practical application.

Look at it this way.  If you go back far enough, nostalgia no longer applies.  Appreciation of an object for what it is, even if it is a copy, can enrich life.  Comparisons with modern design can bring new insights.

How to Get There

This is a specialist area.  If you market the past, you must understand it.  Know the stories, be clear about what an artefact is and what a copy is.

Be clear about why you market something that looks backwards.  Why should anyone care?  What exactly do you sell?

Your Offer

If you take inspiration from the past, be up-front about its relevance to the present.  Show how the past enriches the present.

This is the tenth of 31 posts about elements of value.  Make sure you don’t miss any by signing up for the offer below.  The posts in this sequence can be accessed below:

• Social impact: Self-transcendence
• Life Changing: Provide Hope, Self-Actualisation, Motivation, Heirloom, Affiliation and Belonging
• Emotional: Reduces Anxiety, Rewards Me, Nostalgia

Next:  Design / Aesthetics + 6 more

• Functional 14

Tribes Are Not What You Think They Are

Tribes are about connection and meaning; nothing to do with demographics.

Connection and Meaning

One thing your tribe has in common is their attraction to your offer.  However, this does not mean your tribe belongs to you.  They are going somewhere and need a leader.  Perhaps you can fill that role for a period.

Worldview unites a tribe.  They don’t have to like each other but they must share a liking for something.  Sometimes they have no incentive to meet but find, if they meet they do like each other.

Your task is to discern what they like and provide it.  An opportunity to meet others who share an interest or a problem may be an incentive.

People Like Us …

1. Why this group of people and why now? What is it brings them to a common interest?
2. Who exactly are they and how will you bring them together? Online or in-person?  Do they want to be brought together?
3. What do you need to bring them together? Think about things like activities, policies, procedures, written materials, values and vision.

… Like Things Like This

You offer leadership to build a group of people who know, like and trust you and so pay for your services.  Your products and services are crucial.  You must either create things and seek out those who buy them or get to know a tribe and give them what they want (or both).

So, it is important to think about front-end and back-end activities.  Front-end activities draw the right people into your tribe.  They are things like lead-magnets online or loss-leader activities in-person.

Back-end activities take place once people sign up.  Customers pay for some and you can include bonus activities.  These help build that sense of belonging to a group that confers status.

Other activities such as blogging connect those outside to those on the inside.  Indeed, several layers of membership allows people to relate to you in a way that best suits them.

Following this twenty-sixth post to encourage coaches to reflect on relational marketing, take this opportunity to sign up below.  You get a weekly round-up of my posts and a pdf about how to make sure you are charging what your business is worth.

Generosity and Rewards for Clients

Rewards Me is the second of Bain’s Emotional Elements of Value.  I’ve no idea why “Me” but his point is clearly rewards for clients.

What is it?

Most readers have visited a Farmers’ Market.  You are familiar with a little saucer of free samples.  Maybe cubes of bread to dip in oil or chutney, perhaps cubes of cheese or even a small sample of something stronger.

This is a free gift, made at the front end of a business to draw in new customers.  It is like the generosity you see online, where people receive a pdf in return for their email address; a lead magnet.

But return to the Farmers’ Market and imagine you buy regularly from a stall, could be anything, let’s say cheese.  One day the stall holder slips in an extra portion of cheese, maybe a new line.

You can look at this in two ways.  It is an opportunity to try a new cheese and if you like it, you’ll buy some next time.  But maybe you have a budget and so if you buy the new cheese, you won’t buy your usual favourites.

Alternatively, this is a reward for your custom. The stall holder knows you like cheese and helps you extend your experience. They are building a relationship with you.  It’s not that you buy more, so much that they are less likely to lose your custom.  And of course you might recommend them to friends.

They might go further and invite you to a wine and cheese evening, no charge, for their regular customers.  They are rewarding you as a customer.  Stay with them and you’ll extend your experience of cheese (and wine), deepen your knowledge of cheese and meet others with similar tastes.

Value for the Client

You see the difference between the two approaches?  The first is a front end strategy, the second is back-end.  The cheese seller is aware they need to build a tribe of people who love cheese.  They see there is value in investing in their tribe.  These people become their ambassadors and so they want to offer something of value to show appreciation.

How to Get There

The rewards must be of real value to the client.  Normally, they are best if relevant to the business.  So, a cheese seller would try something cheese related.  They could give valued customers a box of chocolates.  This might be appreciated but it’s a bit random and diabetics who eat cheese instead of chocolates lose out.  You know your customers love cheese, so give them cheese!

You can develop a programme of rewards so as customers come closer and spend more, they receive more in return.  Or you may find there are times when an opportunity presents itself, perhaps you have more cheese than you can sell!

Your Offer

If you are a coach, be generous through your back-end.  These are sometimes called bonuses, which can be front or back-end.

Offer front-end bonuses with the package.  These are not really rewards because they are part of the package customers know they are purchasing.  It is worth noting affiliate marketers offer bonuses too for customer who order through them.

Back-end rewards are not advertised up front.  They could be a small gift as a sign of appreciation for their purchase, eg a book relevant to the topic of the coaching.  You could round up current and past clients and organise an event for them.  Whatever it is, make sure it is something they appreciate.

This is the ninth of 31 posts about elements of value.  Make sure you don’t miss any by signing up for the offer below.  The posts in this sequence can be accessed below:

• Social impact Self-transcendence
• Life Changing Provide Hope, Self-Actualisation, Motivation, Heirloom, Affiliation and Belonging
• Emotional Reduces Anxiety, Rewards Me

Next:  Nostalgia

+ 7 more

• Functional 14

Does Permission Marketing Work for You?

When I started as a local marketing coach, I signed up to several email lists from online marketing and business gurus.  This means I wade through numerous emails everyday and don’t read most.  A few have my attention but most do not get a second glance.  Permission marketing is where people appreciate your material.

Understanding Permission Marketing

Permission marketing demonstrates the difference between technical and adaptive marketing solutions.  Email marketing is a technical solution.  You learn how to create, maintain and use email lists and they are a great marketing tool.

Go further and learn how to write great emails with captivating subject lines.  If you can get to emails that recipients find a pleasure to read, you are almost there.

The challenge is to find people who appreciate your efforts and look forward to seeing your emails in their inbox.  This means you are interesting and engaging to them.  You have their attention and so their permission.

Generating Loyalty

1. How do people feel when they sign up for your e-newsletter, blog or lead magnet?  How do you know?
2. What do they believe about your ability to deliver on your promises?
3. How are your messages to them different from junk mail?

How to Win Permission

This is a long game.  It takes time to win attention.  You must turn up day after day with a consistent and engaging message.  People must understand what you stand for and those who find it attractive will reach out to you.

The model most often promoted could be described as give give give take!  You give a lot away in the hope that somehow out of gratitude, your people will in time buy from you.  This can and does work but does not in and of itself build loyalty.

The reason is marketing is often about what the business owner wants.  They lack empathy with their market.  They are not tuned into the lives of their followers.

This is not an either or situation.  I suspect many of the most successful online gurus have a mixture of loyal readers and others who were initially interested.  It is complicated and success is likely to find a range of people with different needs and so different degrees of loyalty.

What makes the difference?

It is the models we use to think about business.  The most common models are confrontational.  Competition between businesses is one example but this easily spills over into relationships with customers. Attempts to motivate customers to buy more, are likely to generate a confrontational market.  But this is how we make sales, isn’t it?

Any business has to sell.  The issue here is the model we use as a context for sales.  We can use unexamined sales models based on confrontation.  Alternatively we can seek non-confrontational models.

For example, the journey or pilgrimage.  You as a business are on a journey and invite others to join in.  Everyone brings something to the journey and is responsible for their part in it.  Some aspects are held in common while others are unique to each person.  The aim is to meet both the goals held in common and those of each person.

Following this twenty-fifth post to encourage coaches to reflect on relational marketing, take this opportunity to sign up below.  You get a weekly round-up of my posts and a pdf about how to make sure you are charging what your business is worth.

What to do to Reduce Anxiety

Moving on with Elements of Value, from life changing to emotional values.  As we descend Bain’s pyramid, the scope of these values narrows.  Perhaps these next 10 values are about self-control.  They aim to help you follow the course you are on and not so much change course.  Remember, with emotional stability, we are more likely to make life changing decisions.   One important emotional issue is how to reduce anxiety.

What is It?

Anxiety is an emotion we all experience and sometimes find hard to name.  In the body it often accompanies tightening of the muscles on either side of the abdomen.  This correlates with taking part in any stressful activity, eg public speaking.

Different people are anxious about different things.  For example, public speaking energises me.  I often do my best work speaking and cannot remember a time I felt anxious about it.

On the other hand I find interacting with people much more stressful, often becoming tongue-tied or expressing myself badly.  This is odd because I can speak to an audience without a script but get anxious when speaking one to one.  So, this is not about rationality.  If your client is anxious about something, they may be aware it is irrational (I am) but that doesn’t really help.

Value for the Client

The aim according to Bain is to help the client worry less and feel more secure.

Worry builds into stress and so anxiety is often a prelude to stress.  Strengthening resilience may be important.  Social meetings make me anxious but I go to them.  If anxiety means we stop doing things, it becomes a serious problem.

I don’t generally worry about meetings.  I’ve been to hundreds and know what to do.  I still feel anxious but I don’t worry.  What I have to do is find a purpose so that I don’t spend all the time hiding in a corner or seeming bad-tempered.  Public speaking can provide the role I seek, for example.

Feeling secure, perhaps better termed confidence, is where we are not obsessed by what can go wrong and can actually function.  We all have coping strategies and perhaps to be more effective we need to change them.  This is the role of a coach, to help the client work out the most effective way they can use their strengths to bolster their weaker aspects.

Your Offer

This may be stress coaching but I find, as a marketing coach, elements of reducing anxiety are necessary.  Sometimes we find workarounds together.  Maybe some clients need more specialist help.

One of my roles as a coach is to help clients name their problems and if it is anxiety we can look at the specifics together and work out support the client needs.

I suspect most coaches need to reduce anxiety because it is a common reason clients do not perform at their best.

This is the eighth of 31 posts about elements of value.  Make sure you don’t miss any by signing up for the offer below.  The posts in this sequence can be accessed below:

• Social impact: Self-transcendence
• Life Changing: Provide Hope, Self-Actualisation, Motivation, Heirloom, Affiliation and Belonging
• Emotional: Reduces Anxiety

Next:  Rewards Me

+ 8 more

• Functional 14

Why Public Relations and Publicity Don’t Sell

Public relations and publicity don’t sell because they have more to do with your ego than your business.

Brand and Direct Marketing Redux

During the 1980s, I wrote articles about unemployment projects for the Teesside Advertiser.  This was voluntary and I did it for a local church-based organisation committed to supporting the long-term unemployed.

Mostly I wrote about woodwork shops.  They were in vogue at the time with a smattering of car mechanics, food preparation and needlecrafts.  There were a few stand out projects and I remember  foremost, a course put on by a few church leaders called “Dark Holy Ground”.  A course for long-term unemployed and of all the projects I visited, with the most profound impact on their lives.  Why?  Because they based it on listening to stories.

Inspired, I wrote one of my best articles, the only one the Advertiser refused to publish!  Why?  My best guess is that it was religious.  But most of the woodwork shops were religious too.  Going deeper it was edgy.  It was not the sort of thing the Advertiser published.

When you enter the world of Public Relations and publicity, you in effect hand your marketing to someone else.  Someone who cares about their bottom line and has no time for or interest in your message.  Win an award and they’ll be on your doorstep.  That’s safe.  Tell them what the award was for and tread on dangerous ground.

It feels good to be featured in established media but it is brand marketing and many businesses that win such publicity find it does little if anything for sales.  You can spend a lot of time and money chasing publicity but it rarely generates the results you need as a business.

Publicity Tactics

1. Can you list publications that would write about your business?
2. Which ones would write about you in a way you can share with others?
3. What is it about your business that would cause a reporter to take an interest?

Making Publicity Work for You

Some businesses are born publicised, some businesses achieve publicity and some businesses have publicity thrust upon them.  Assuming you have received publicity by some means (and it is good), what is the next step?

Remember this is brand marketing and so the costs in time and money have no relation to the benefit you receive.  An article in a publication will disappear from view in a matter of days.  So, the question is how you can give it a longer lifetime.

There are two dimensions to this.

First, you may be able to give an original or one-off article a greater lifetime.  If it is online, you can link to it on social media and your website.  If it is not online, you can still reference it: “As featured in …”.  You may be able to display the article somewhere, eg restaurants feature reviews in their windows.  Sometimes you see them in offices or some public space.

The other possibility is other media may take an interest once you break through.  Once you are a story, it is easier for other media to take up the story.  You may need to fan the flames.  If they are actively seeking you out, you may need to manage their interest.  Not every story is bound to be positive.

Remember when you hand over your story to others, they make it less edgy.  If you want people to talk about you, consider other forms of marketing.  Perhaps publicity ultimately results in trust and not so much in interest.

Following this twenty-fourth post to encourage coaches to reflect on relational marketing, take this opportunity to sign up below.  You get a weekly round-up of my posts and a pdf about how to make sure you are charging what your business is worth.

Building Belonging Brings Value

Most marketers are into building belonging.  Many talk about building a tribe.  But there is a distinction between marketing to a tribe and actively and openly building one.

What is it?

A tribe is people like us.  You sell to them because people like us buy things like this.  If someone belongs to such a tribe, they value what you offer because they believe it is right for them.  Their sense of belonging increases but they might equally be unaware of the tribe they belong to.

So, one choice is to show how your offer enhances their sense of belonging.

Value for the Client

So, what is it about belonging, your client finds valuable?

Status plays an important role but status alone is unlikely to make the deal happen.  Online activities, for example, have an initial status appeal but in time the name of the teacher and course seems less attractive. Most people don’t know these names and why should they trust you recycling what you learned from others?

Being a member of a group that provides genuine support may be really attractive.  Here you are not sitting at the feet of a teacher so much as discussing and working on problems together.  This experience has status appeal.  Being part of an inner circle can be very attractive.

How to Get There

It is difficult to move from nothing to an inner circle in one bound.  To build a group requires trust.  Your tribe does not belong to you.  They exist mostly in isolation unaware of other members or that they belong to that tribe.

So, your task is to raise awareness for members of the problem they share.  Some listen and take up your offer and so you begin to build trust.  You find yourself able to introduce members of the tribe.

Your Offer

You could offer membership of a club where you teach or discuss issues of common interest to meet in-person or online.  There are numerous closed groups online, where people choose to gather.

Meetings can be social or educational and more usually both.  They can be for learning, networking, support, consultancy on some situation, case, project or problem.

This is the seventh of 31 posts about elements of value.  Make sure you don’t miss any by signing up for the offer below.  The posts in this sequence can be accessed below:

• Social impact: Self-transcendence
• Life Changing: Provide hope, Self-Actualisation, Motivation, Heirloom, Affiliation and Belonging

• Emotional: Next:  Reduces Anxiety

+ 9 more

• Functional 14

Provide an Heirloom for the Next Generation

Of the five life changing elements of value, this one is perhaps most distinct.  The focus is on an heirloom for future generations and not so much the business owner.

What is it?

My brother-in-law’s family have a Bible that is a few hundred years old.  They have a distinctive first name passed from generation to generation and the family inscribed detail of each person so named in it.  That’s an heirloom.

As Bain suggests, you can sell products to pass to future generations.  Items of jewellery, for example.  The value of an heirloom goes beyond its monetary value.  The fact that one or more ancestors used the item adds to its value, sometimes called sentimental value.

This is a narrow definition.  Legacy might be a better word because we can leave much more for descendants.

Value for the Client

My father never aimed to leave a fortune to his children.  He believed we would be better off learning skills to provide for our families.  So, note not everyone is interested in leaving an heirloom or legacy for their descendants.  However, legacy implies several possibilities.  Here are a few.

Equipping your children with the knowledge and skills they need.  Parents who pay for their children to study at University for example, are in effect leaving a legacy.

Parents pass on skills, knowledge and know-how to children.  If as a business person you know how to make money, these insights are of value to future generations.

Another legacy is to pass on your business.   My father hoped I would take on his business but my interests were elsewhere.  But where there is willingness to take it on, this can work.  To pass on the business early can mean you develop new interests while still available to lend a hand as the new business owner navigates unfamiliar waters.

Or else, pass on elements of the business.  If you are in property for example, you might leave a property portfolio for each child.

And of course, you can sell the business and leave money.  There are several reasons you might sell your business and legacy may have a minor role, as you may need to provide for immediate needs during retirement.  This is a complex area and if your business has value, you are likely to need professional help to sell it.

How to Get There

All these options have potential for business support.  They all benefit from specialist help.

Someone who wants to make provision for their children, must consider the best steps they can take.  One obvious point is children may have different needs and inclinations.  I admired and copied my father but I was never interested in the one thing he worked for.  My sister may have been a better bet to take over his business but at the time that was not something anyone considered.

There are many stories of wayward children who squander the family fortune.  Others may be willing but lack business sense or may resent a parent who interferes in what is now their business.

Where it works out, legacies can be of value but they need careful planning and realism.

Maybe in the end an heirloom is the best option!

Your Offer

There are opportunities for coaches or consultants in this area.  Simply working out the best strategy can be a real challenge.  So, can complex activities such as selling a business.

This is perhaps mainly the domain of financial advisors but the issue may come up for other coaches and consultants.  There’s no harm asking about legacies as a part of a business growth or marketing package.

This is the sixth of 31 posts about elements of value.  Make sure you don’t miss any by signing up for the offer below.  The posts in this sequence can be accessed below:

• Social impact Self-transcendence
• Life Changing Provide hope

Self-Actualisation

Motivation

Heirloom

Next:  Affiliation and Belonging

• Emotional 10
• Functional 14

Understanding Story Telling

Story-telling is a recurring theme in this blog (search for “story”). Twice a month I run a story-telling session for business owners.  However, I still find understanding story-telling in marketing challenging.  The challenge is to tell a story that connects you and your prospects.

From Me to You

Mostly, stories used in marketing are personal.  Why?  Well, they are easier to tell!  You know what happened, how you felt, what you did and the outcome.  The problem with many such stories is they do not reach out to your prospects.

Some people argue you need a story that shows you understand your prospects’ problem.  There is a lot of truth in this.  The challenge is to make your prospects feel the connection.  I may have experienced the problem first hand but can I show I know how my prospects feel?

The key is to tell their story too.  Show you have empathy and really understand what they are going through.

Your Business Story

1. How do you think your prospects perceive your story?
2. What difference does your story make to theirs?  Do you know and tell their story?
3. What changes when your stories interact?

Stories that Transform

If your story makes an impact and brings about the transformation you seek, there are some  things to remember.

Consider who is the star of your story.  If it is a personal story, can you make your prospects centre stage?  There is tension here.  Your story is unique, while a story about prospects in general will be less personal.  Even if you find a story about a particular prospect, why should that story be any more effective than yours?

Help your prospects understand and avoid their problem.  Start focused on them and then show you understand the problem too because of your experience.  Later you can offer more examples, to show how the problem manifests.

Then show how your story leads to solutions to their problem.  Show them how to achieve what they want, make the connections they want and ultimately realise their dreams.

A Journey

Take the listener on a journey.  Show how you thought and experienced the world in a particular way.  Then show how something happened, a turning point led to seeing the world in a different way, to new experiences, new skills and success in some field.

There are other story structures but the main point is to tell a story listeners apply to their situation.  It is about how you faced the problem they faced, what you tried and results that resonate with what they want.

Following this twenty-second post to encourage coaches to reflect on relational marketing, take this opportunity to sign up below.  You get a weekly round-up of my posts and a pdf about how to make sure you are charging what your business is worth.  Sometimes you receive an email with helpful news or pointers to how you can tackle these questions.