The JKB Marketing Blog

Here are two more keys to success for recent graduates...

Yesterday I talked about the importance of action and time.

Without action, nothing would ever get accomplished. Products would forever remain just be an idea or a dream. But there is an aspect of action I failed to mention yesterday: The act of trying to make your ideas or dreams real is not easy.

In fact, you will fail many times as you try to physically create something worthwhile. However, if you have persistence and learn from your mistakes you will eventually achieve greater success.

For example, many people try to learn an instrument. You probably know a bunch of people who have a guitar sitting at home collecting dust. I have one at home that I've started to play about ten times over the past three years. Starting out is hard. When you start learning to play you realize how much you don't know and how difficult learning to play will be.

So you play for a week or two, then skip a day of practice. Then skip a week of practice... then a month. Then you either quit entirely or start all over again in six months. If only you had stuck it out for those six months, you'd be that much closer to being a good guitar player.

And it's like that for everything. Learning is difficult, frustrating and filled with a lot of failures and only small gains at first. But if you have the persistence to stick it out through the tough times--if you understand that there is a price that needs to be paid for anything that's worhtwhile--you'll make your dream a reality. You'll learn to play the guitar. You'll get your Master's Degree. You'll learn a second language.

To keep from spinning your wheels as you try to accomplish your goal, you should make a plan and stick to it. Break down your goal into pieces and set a schedule to learn those pieces. This is what we do when writing a computer program for some problem. We break the seemingly overwhelming problem into smaller and smaller parts until we come to small enough chunks that are easy to solve.

I'm doing the same thing for the guitar.

Break up your goals into these smaller goals and set up deadlines to reach them. You may have to change some deadlines as you go, but the important part is that you have a manageable plan. You'll be able to see the progress you're making.

With enough persistence and discipline you can achieve a certain level of success in ANYTHING!

IMPORTANT NOTE: Notice I didn't speak about talent, or genius, or education. All of these attributes help greatly, but they aren't the keys to success. And they could, in fact, harm you if you believe the world owes you because of your innate greatness. You've got to go out and make it happen yourself.

Late June means its time for High School Graduation parties. It's also a time to impart wisdom on the recent grads to help them avoid the mistakes you made. Of course they won't actually listen to your advice until they've made the same mistakes themselves, but at least you tried.

As of now, I think there are two key elements to success--time and action.

People will judge and remember you by what you do. Not by what you think, how you feel, what you like or what you believe. In the end, your actions always speak louder than words.

It seems to me that the truly happy and successful people don't talk about what they'd like to do--they talk about what they are doing, or have done, or will do tomorrow.

And if your actions make life better for those around you, you will be rewarded spiritually and monetarily.

Human Action by Ludwig von Mises discusses economics as praxeology, or the study of the logic of human action.

Mises summarizes action as purposeful behavior. If you were perfectly satisfied, you wouldn't have to do anything. Therefore, "to live implies imperfection and change." So an action is done to create a better situation for a worse one.

Mises gives real meanings to the a host of economic terms including trade, value, costs, and prices. His description of economics just seems right to me. And understanding human action and the logic behind economic theory will help you achieve your own goals.

The second key element of success is understanding that the most valuable resource is time. No matter how much money you have, how smart you are or what contacts you have, your day is only 24 hours long. Your life expectancy is under 80 years.

Spending the limited amount of time you have wisely will make you a much happier person. To do so probably means cutting back on the amount of TV you watch.

You will be amazed at how much you can accomplish when you focus on what you want to do--and then actually do it!

Today we lauched our latest site redesign. It is our fourth version in two and a half years.

Boy has our site gone through some changes over the years!

Our first site was flash-based and loaded with graphics. It looked like a typical web design firms site--looked great, was flashy but low on content. As our original target market was heavily involved in the entertainment industry, the site matched our typical customers expectation.

As we eveolved as a company, we started serving more B-to-B customers. Version two eliminated the flash and had a more corporate feel but still was light on the useful content.

With version three we experimented with a content-heavy stripped-down approach. At this time were beginning to push other marketing services more than our web design because of the downward pressure on pricing from out-sourced Indian programmers and out-of-work US free-lancers. We never quite got the results we were looking for.

Version 4.0 brings us nearly full circle, as once again the emphasis is on web design and driving traffic to your site (or office or bricks and mortar store.) The site is content-heavy, looks good and loads fast. We think it finally captures most of the aspects of what we offer our clients.

As a start-up two years ago, we thought we knew it all. After many successes and failures, we realize we know a lot less now than we did back then. It's interesting to see how much we have changed in just a few years. And yet, we never really changed our core values and the soul of the company. It has taken some time to find, define and grow comfortable with our company's voice.

It's an ongoing process. I will keep you updated...

Gary Halbert is publishing a daily Halbertism on his site. They include tips on email and snail mail marketing, thoughts on being successful, and whatever comes to his mind.

WARNING: What comes to his mind is occassionally very coarse and rarely politically correct. If you are easily offended, do NOT go to his site.

For the rest of us, Halbert offers strategies learned from years of experience in the direct marketing game.

As an example, today's tip mentions that sending an email campaign on Tuesday between 11am and 2pm gets much greater results than an email sent at any other time.

His tips are specific and highly recommended.

A recent MarketingSherpa article [available until June 20th] details three coming trends in email delivery:

1. Authorization -- You are going to have to prove that your email is from who it says it is from using either SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and/or Yahoo's DomainKeys.

2. Pay-to-Play -- Whitelisting Services may expect you to pay to ensure delivery.

3. Communications -- ISP's would prefer to hear from you before there is a problem. Contact them and find the best times to mail their customers, and consult with them before launching a major campaign. ISP's don't make it easy for you to reach them.

All of the above trends seem to be a natural step in the maturation process of email delivery. Your broadcast vendor should be on top of all of these changes. If not, you will need to find a new one.

Media Daily News recently ran an article detailing the dangers of fraudulent search engine optimization practices. An unscrupulous provider can temporarily get you a listing, but you risk being dropped from the engine.

Common illegal practices include:

Doorway Pages -- These are pages that are meant to drive traffic normally through the use of multiple keywords without any meaningful content. A "Search Engine Specialist" may create and host many of these pages that redirect the user to your actual homepage.

Cloaking -- When you serve a search engine optimized page to the search engine spider, but a different page to actual visitors.

Link farms -- Link farms artificially inflate your site's link popularity by creating a ring of people exchanging links with other participants.

Invisible Text -- Hiding keywords by printing them the same color as the background, or printing them in tiny font is considered spam to all search engines.

So how do you get a good search engine ranking without running the risk of getting dropped?

Standards-compliant pages are easy for the spiders to read. Include important keywords in your title and headlines give your images meaningful alt tags.

To get a good natural ranking, go after niche keywords where the competition is not as fierce as the more generalized terms. For example, "auto parts" is much too generic. However "'57 Ford Mustang parts" is a realistic and worthwhile term to target.

Another large factor in generating good rankings is the number and quality of the sites that link to you. You can improve the link popularity of your site by starting a blog, participating in online discussion groups and forums and including your web address in your signature, and getting your site listed in as many relevant directories as possible.

Regularly updating the content on your site will keep the search engine spiders coming back.

As usual, the best methods involve creating a good plan and puttting in the effort needed to complete the plan.

We've had some of our clients pay SEO companies good money to do nothing but change some meta-tags and probably create illegal doorway pages on their site.

For more information on search engine optimization visit Search Engine Watch.

Microsoft will be releasing a major security update to Windows XP and Internet Explorer in July. The new IE will include a pop-up blocker by default. If your site uses "window.createPopup()" to launch new windows, you may need to rewrite your code.

IE will also block dhtml elements that create overlapping content on the page and modal and modeless dialogs. The technical summary is not very specific on these issues. If your site contains any of these elements you would be advised to download a beta version of the service pack and test.

The update will also block the launching of ActiveX controls unless they are signed with up-to-date signatures. IE will also block automatic downloads of files. File downloads should be initiated by the user, and file types need to match their file extensions.

Finally, sites dependant on Microsoft Java Virtual Machine will need to review their code as those applications may not work unless programmers tweak the code.

Many of these changes are long overdue and will help make browsing the web more enjoyable for the many people who are not interested in becoming computer experts. Because JKBedrin already codes our sites as close to standards-compliant as possible and has avoided the use of javascripting and activex controls, these changes will not affect any of our clients.

If you are an industrial supplier, the answer is yes.

As reported in the June 8th Chief Marketer Newsletter, a new survey by the Thomas Industrial Network of opt-in users shows that 85% of industrial buyers use the internet to purchase products.

Respondents report that over half the time they cannot find adequate product or pricing information at the company sites they visit.

I know when I am researching a potential product on the internet, I hate when there is no pricing information. I realize that many prices cannot be determined without more definite information, but there is no reason not to give a typical example to at least give a starting point. While price is rarely the determining factor, it is a very important one. When there is no pricing info, I am forced to assume the worst.

And if there is inadequate product information, I quickly click back to the search engine or directory and head to the next listing.

I deal with a lot of B-to-B clients. Many potential clients could greatly use a site overhaul or an expanded web presence. Unfortunately, these clients find it hard to see the benefits of a well-designed site and strategic plan to drive traffic to that site. Owners often use faulty logic to resist change: because I am not getting any business through my site, my clients must not use the internet much to purchase my product.

Little do they know that it is their website that is causing the lack of response.

The web provides a convenient, efficient method for buyers to compare many products quickly. Buyers are saving money and increasing their ROI. If you would like to take advantage of these facts, you need a website.

I recently came across a great tool to help analyze the download speed of your web pages. Web Page Analyzer is a free website speed tester and analyzer.

You simply enter a URL and the Webpage Analyzer measures your page in many different categories. It also offers brief recommendations to improve your speed based on best practices of usability gurus HCI Research.

After measuring several of our sites, I found most of our sites within the best practice standards for number of page elements, size of html and use of only a few stylesheets. Unfortunately, many of our stylesheets run a little bit long. I will have to pay a little closer attention to optimizing the length of our CSS files.

Download speed is incredibly important for anyone who is trying to attract and keep visitors. Google is the greatest example of trimming all the fat and leaving just the bare bones behind. The other end of the spectrum is espn.com which is exceedingly slow to load on our broadband connection.

As a courtesy to your slower-connected users, keep your large images and flash files seperate from your main pages and only serve them when they are requested.

Here are a product and service that really stood out to me for both their usefulness and uniqueness at last week's trade show:

MSS-Standby manages newspaper ad placement at standby rates. They work with a wide assortment of papers all over the US and can save you 75-80% on the cost of your advertising.

With a Z-Card you can put a map into someone's pocket that folds down to slightly larger than a business card. The example I have folds out to show a map of the NYC Subway system. Potential customers will USE your zcard time and again.

At this time last Thursday, I was attending the DM Days NY Expo at the Javitz Center in NYC. DMD is geared towards direct mailers and catalogers.

Three thoughts on the trade show displays:

First, it was remarkable to me that a show geared towards Direct Response would have so many displays where it was nearly impossible to figure out what exactly each company does. As it was the final day of a three-day Expo, the crowd was small and it was easy for me to get to the booths and speak with the vendors. But if it had been crowded, I would have skipped over many exhibits because I wouldn't have known what they had to do with me.

Second, because the trade show was geared to Direct Mailers, there were many list brokers and fulfillment services. But 90% of the vendors simply listed the services they provide--the same services every other company had listed. Only when you directly spoke with a salesman could you found out that they specialized in large runs, or small customized jobs, or filled the niche in-between.

Where are the good headlines to draw in the right prospects? Without the proper headline, I end up wasting my time and the salesman's time.

Finally, cell phones! I am walking through the trade show and I see a booth that is offering a service I need. I go to the booth which has only one person manning it. And, of course, that person is hunched over in the corner jabbering away into his cell phone. Nice. I move on. Another booth is selling a funky custom printer. I introduce myself and the salesman's cell phone rings. And he answers it! Good-bye, nice talking to you.

So if you are going to have a display at a trade show, please make it clear what you do and who you do it for. And turn your darn cell phone off!

The Center for Media Research offers some interesting facts regarding Mother's Day:

Mother's Day trails only Christmas and Valentine's Day as the most-popular holiday for sending greeting cards.

Mother's Day is the second biggest holiday for flowers with spending of $868 million expected this year.

Mom's can expect an average of $98.64 to be spent on them. Spending on all Mothers will top $10 billion and includes greeting cards, flowers, restaurants and jewelry.

Over 1 in 7 people will go online to purchase something for Mom.

"We can't guarantee success, but we can deserve it." - G. Washington, J. Adams and others...*

Your marketing may not be quite as important as the Revolutionary War, but the above quote holds just the same.

You can't know for certain how well your marketing is going to perform. But you can take steps to create campaigns that DESERVE to succeed by following a few simple steps.

It all starts with a product or service that actually benefits your clients in ways that THEY find valuable. Stay close to your target market and you'll know what concerns them. You'll know their wants and desires, their hot buttons and their standard objections. Then you can confidently make them an offer they can't refuse.

When you know who you're talking to, you should have no problem talking strait with them. They'll pick up on your sincerity. Truthfully state the benefits they'll receive by using your product or service. Sell the end result, not the road to get there.

***News Flash***
Your prospects care about themselves much more than they care about you.
***End of Flash***

Sell benefits. That means sell the silky soft skin not the ingredients of your skin cleanser. Sell the sizzle, and use the steak to prove your point.

And if you believe in your product, don't be afraid to show some enthusiasm. Get your targets excited about it. It's a long tough road to separate a prospect from their money.

That's why you should assume most (if not all) of the risk in the transaction. If your product produces all the wonderful effects you say it will, you should have no problem offering a strong guarantee. "Satisfaction Guaranteed" isn't strong enough or specific enough. "Softer skin in three weeks or we demand you get your money back!" makes the point more forcefully and will help you close sales.

Finally, no matter how brilliant your campaign appears to be, don't just assume it will be successful. Track the response rates to make sure the real world reacts well enough to justify your costs. Just because you deserve success, doesn't mean you'll get it.

* Original Quote (According to Bartlett's):
'Tis not in mortals to command success,
But we'll do more, Sempronius, we'll deserve it.
Cato. Act i. Sc. 2.

From DMNews:

Growth in the number of house file names helped a business-to-business marketer of art elements triple the response rate for its November 2003 catalog compared with the book mailed in 2002.

Current customers continue to be the most overlooked commodity in most businesses. What can YOU do to get the most out of this valuable resource?

You are witnessing the birth of a blog.

You'll soon find the latest marketing news, strategies, tips, and much more. All provided from the point of view of marketers on the front lines of the businsess world.

We believe that the #1 goal of marketing is producing sales dollars.

Our primary concern is small to mid-size businesses that can't afford to spend their money building their brand through "institutional" advertising. Institutional ads are the ones that don't ask the prospect to take an action.

Keep checking back and you'll learn current strategies others are using, and how effective they are. We'll keep you up-to-date on the the latest laws and regulations so you don't get fined or thrown in jail. And we'll throw in whatever marketing and business tidbits that we'd like to share with you.

Enjoy...