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15th
APR

How Do You Resell Your Employees

Posted by cgseo under Social Media

Share How Do You Resell Your Employees This content from: Duct Tape Marketing People come to work at your place, you hire for fit, teach them the core value and functions of the job, generally get them fired up for a while and then what? It’s a tough question, but one that is vitally important when it comes to marketing because happy, engaged, sold employees make far better brand advocates than the opposite. In doing some research on referable companies for my new book The Referral Engine , I came across a policy used by the online shoe and clothing retailer Zappos . When Zappos makes a hire, no matter the department, they go through a training class that includes spending time answering customer call center inquiries. (That’s the job that the bulk of Zappos employees fill.) At the end of their training period they are made an offer to quit. They are told they will be paid for the training period + $2,000 if they want to quit. I spoke with Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh recently and he told me that initially they put this in place to weed out people that weren’t ultimately committed to the Zappos way of serving customers, but what they found was the more valuable attribute was the impact it had on the people that stayed. (By the way, few take them up on the offer.) People that turn down the $2,000, an amount that is over two weeks pay for typical call center job, go home over the weekend and think long and hard about why they want to stay. The net effect is that they resell themselves on making a commitment to the job at Zappos. (If you’re a blogger and want a free review copy of Tony’s book Delivering Happiness , due out in June, apply here .) I don’t know that I have a host of answers for what or how you should attack this one, I just know it will pay off if you do. Share your ideas for reselling your employees. How do you do it? Image credit: charlie llewellin Related Posts: 5 Ways to Make Culture a Marketing Strategy Small Business Speaker Series at CES 5 Ways to Make Next Year Your Best Yet Making Ideas Happen Why would someone come to work for you? Powered by Contextual Related Posts Like this post? Share it with others

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10th
APR

Weekend Favs April Ten

Posted by cgseo under Social Media

Share Weekend Favs April Ten This content from: Duct Tape Marketing My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from Flickr. Image credit: gilles paveau :: cafe-photo.net Good stuff I found this week: Canned Banners – Site makes it easy to create animated banner ads for as low as $99 Concept Feedback – Feedback crowdsourcing for web and graphic design Which Draft – Create free legal forms Related Posts: Weekend Favs April Three Weekend Favs March Thirteen Weekend Favs September Twenty Weekend Favs February Twenty Weekend Favs March Twenty Seven Powered by Contextual Related Posts Like this post? Share it with others

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6th
APR

Making Ideas Happen

Posted by cgseo under Social Media

Making Ideas Happen This content from: Duct Tape Marketing Marketing podcast with Scott Belsky (Click to play or right click and “Save As” to download – Subscribe now via iTunes Many business owners, particularly the more creative, are good at making ideas, but not always so good at making those ideas happen. For this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing podcast I visited with Scott Belsky , founder of the Behance Network and author of Making Ideas Happen . Making Ideas Happen chronicles the methods of exceptionally productive creative leaders and teams – companies like Google, IDEO, and Disney, and individuals like author Chris Anderson and Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh – that make their ideas happen, time and time again. As the founder of the Behance Network , the world’s leading platform for creative professionals across all industries, Belsky has heard every reason why good ideas stay just that. In response Behance also created the Action Method an intuitive approach to productivity, designed to help creative thinkers push their ideas into action, and 99%, Behance’s think tank, providing tips, interviews, research, and events designed to help push ideas forward, from vision to reality. I believe anyone looking at trying to create a model for building community could learn a great deal from Behance’s approach. As far as Making Ideas Happen goes I’ll leave you with the words of Seth Godin – “Scott Belsky has your number. He’s seen it all before. He knows your excuses, he’s seen your shtick and he knows all the ways to avoid doing the work. In this book, Scott’s not giving you any place to hide.” Related Posts: Is Our Work a Product of Our Environment? Napkin Technology Still Works For Me How to get beyond Bullet Points Sometimes Simple is Hard Join Me Live with Seth Godin Powered by Contextual Related Posts Like this post? Share it with others

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3rd
APR

Weekend Favs April Three

Posted by cgseo under Social Media

Share Weekend Favs April Three This content from: Duct Tape Marketing My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from Flickr. Enjoy! Good stuff I found this week: Buddy Press – Social networking in a box. Build a social network for your company, school, sports team or niche community all based on the power and flexibility of WordPress. Woopt – Simple enough looking solution for web based mobile app development VaultPress protection and backup service for installed WordPress blogs built on the Automattic grid Image credit: der_rolli Related Posts: Weekend Favs March Six Weekend Favs November Twenty-nine Weekend Favs September Six Weekend Favs March Thirteen Weekend Favs February Six Powered by Contextual Related Posts Like this post? Share it with others

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29th
MAR

The Cycle of Strategy

Posted by cgseo under Social Media

Share The Cycle of Strategy This content from: Duct Tape Marketing Effective strategy, be it marketing related or otherwise, is what really sets one company apart from another. I’m not really saying that every successful company plans and implements better strategy, in some cases strategy just happens because a market and a product find each other and grow organically. However, small businesses that understand the power of an overarching marketing strategy, filtered and infused in every tactical process, will usually enjoy greater success. The problem with strategy however, is that most people don’t really know what it is or, if they do, hobble its effectiveness by viewing its creation as something of a linear event – hold a planning retreat, decide on everything in a vacuum, report back next year. I don’t think strategy works well like that. Strategy planning is an essential first step, but at best it’s guesswork. You’re obligated to do it to get the ball rolling, but not as some sort of final destination to act rigidly against. The value of a marketing plan and strategy comes into focus through the process of planning coupled with real world analysis and a willingness to shift your thinking as you go. Strategy is more circular than most people view it. In fact, the upward spiral might actually be the best metaphor. In my experience there are about seven steps in the ongoing planning and execution of a marketing strategy. When effectively viewed as a tool, these steps are never done, they are just waiting around for the next cycle. These cycles happen for one reason primarily – the market tells you the answer. That answer can come in the form of growth, an opportunity to seize, or even an economic downturn. Either way, the circular motion needs to stay in tact. I believe business owners need to continuously monitor these seven elements of the marketing strategy circle. Who – Are you attracting the ideal customer and can you more narrowly define who that is? What – Do you have a clear core point of differentiation? What is it and how are you communicating it? The Plan – What action steps do you need to take today and tomorrow to bring your marketing strategy to life? What goals have your set for success of the strategy? Execute – Are you executing against the plan? Measure – What indicators need to be tracked and captured to allow you to determine your success? Analyze – How will you analyze the data you collect to determine if you are on course, need to make alterations or even move towards a new opportunity? Shift – How will you change course? How will you start the cycle over again? Holding the guess, test, and realign state of mind when it comes to marketing strategy is the one of the surest ways to successfully tap the power of effective growth by way of planning. Image credit: ZeroOne Related Posts: Stop Wasting Your Time With Social Media What's So Scary About Marketing Strategy? Get Your Shine On I Hate Business Plans Tis better to be found than to find Powered by Contextual Related Posts Like this post? Share it with others

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