Caffeinated Marketing

Jen has landed! Stability is good. Paycheck is good. Cubicle is good!

On Monday, November 29th, 2010 I started my new job as an Account Executive with Citadel Radio. I will be consulting with clients about their marketing practices (love that!) and why a combination of radio, web, text is a fit for XYZ business.  I will be representing 96.9 The Eagle, 93.1 Hit Music Now & 92.3 Kissin’92.

I have always believed that Radio is a good fit in a marketing mix when messaged properly.  (although Jeff Caves stated on Tuesday “so, your going to take a crack of selling traditional?”)  I truly do believe, and always have, it is your messaging, honesty, integrity, reputation and service that will make you successful – whichever medium you choose to be successful on.

I will not be out there selling to selling. I have this desire and need to help people make a difference on their bottom line…it’s the Mama in me: help & change & help & change.

Success is not a matter of luck, it’s a level of happiness that I will achieve.
All my love,
-jen

I was just looking at my email signature & had to giggle in this new year about it.  Everything is “jenHarris09″.  When I started labeling myself, “JenHarris” was taken (she is a California photographer) so I added my college volleyball number to the end.  After being laid off at MPC & the eventual closing of the computer manufacture, a friend of mine that I worked with decided to finally get on twitter (more to shut me up more than anything else).  When he first appeared (Christmas of ’08) I urged him to change his handle to his real name (which was taken) with an added number to it.  So being the funny man he is….he added “09″ to the end.  Of course I thought it was a pretty funny-smart-arsh-clever way to, again, shut me up…but his reason was:

“I figure that ’09 is, and has to be, better than ’08″

So with that looooooooonnnnnnnnngggggg background story, here is why I want you to check him out: he is an AMAZING artist!  He use to doodle in meetings the most amazing vines, lines, stripes and designs that took my breath away.  He does these family trees (see to the left) that make me tear up almost every time I look at mine.  Everyone in our family has one & it has been a huge conversation piece when we have friends over.

I have no reason in writing this except that I love his artwork and I want you to check it out.

Brad Shaw is on FaceBook.
Brad Shaw is on Twitter.
Brad Shaw has a website.

Enjoy & here’s to making twenty ten SO MUCH better than “09″
xoxo
-jen

I just had a LinkedIn aquantance ask me to give him some tips on Twitter & I banged the following out in 10 minutes:

Hey there- What is your handle? I am JenHarris09.
1. See if you can land JoeBob as a handle or Joe_Bob or JoeBob09 (09 used as example of some number…or as a friend of mine did it just to mock me!-funny!)
1A. Make sure your profile is completely filled out. Where you are at (boise) at your URL, a bio that makes you human – not a sales guy.
2. Find locals through lists (you can look on my account and either follow that list and/or (and is best) follow Boise area people).
3. Find locals through http://wefollow.com/. “register” yourself under three tags. Boise or Idaho is best then your profession as well. Then follow all those in the tags that intrigue you for your biz.
4. Tweet that you are in the process of starting your account, you are eager to go to your first TweetUp (@Boise_TweetUp) and wanting to help them with their cell phone woes.
5. Listen/search & set up RSS for those people having woes: go to search.twitter.com (this search can also be done through your twitter home page – but search.twitter.com is better. The search.twitter is just like google-type this in – near:boise “cell phone” . it will search in the boise, idaho area for the words “cell phone”. so whatever words you put in, it will search for & update – you can then get a feed for that (rss) and plunk that into your reader…google reader is best. if you don’t have a reader, just keep checking back to search.twitter.com
6. Listen/search & engage in OTHER conversations more.
7. Listen/search, engage and solve.
8. Listen/search, engage and share.
9. Local Twitter Cell Phone rock star you will be!
10. Be honest, don’t pitch, be personal (twitter is not your personal billboard) and again, don’t pitch. Think of Twitter as a big room of people where you are getting to know them. You don’t shove your biz card in their hand and walk away, don’t do that on Twitter (or any SM site). There is a reason why they call it “social” marketing! Good luck – hope that wasn’t overload.
Just get on & get going!
-jen
PS: Great site for Twitter apps that will give you a bit of overload: http://oneforty.com/

I am currently feeling a bit high.  I LOVE helping people discover,  learn and understand why Social Media is so vital to business.
Dear People, someone please hire me…you will NOT be sorry!
xoxo
-jen

A reward for a referral should be an element of surprise, not a bribe.  If your business is good enough, there will be natural recommendations – if you have to bribe your customers & make the process more than one step…you loose the credibility in which good recommendations are given.

I am not saying that your customers shouldn’t be aware that there are perks when friends take you up on your recommendations, just don’t make it more steps than “did anyone recommend you to visit us today sir?”

Example 1:
We have all seen the DirecTV ads that your friends are worth $100 each when you give your account info to your friend, your friend is then suppsed to tell the person on the other end of the phone that they were recommended by Dick & Jane who then are rewarded the cash.  Ick.  Who does that? Who solicits their friends like that?
Why doesn’t DirecTV just ask the new customer if anyone recommended them and THEN DirecTV rewards the person with a credit and a thank you note on their bill.  I don’t know what the success rate of DTV’s new campaign is, but I can tell you that their reputation for antiquated marketing ideas is being noticed in my circles (when it comes to making their current customers feel “special”…and yes, I expect to feel special as your customer).
And just a side note, I am in L-O-V-E with my DirecTV.  They have taken care of me more than once via Twitter & I spread the love to anyone who asks if we are happy.

Example 2:
My dentist – Dr. Higginson at Lighthouse Dental in Eagle.  I love this guy…he has a nickname in our house…Dr. Happy.  He makes you feel so good about having a root canal!  They sent out in the mail a really nice newsletter that had some great information on it as to what they were up to in the office & outside in their personal lives as well, I really enjoyed it (of course my head was spinning…this should be a blog too!).  They enclosed a referral card that I have to sign (you can print one as well from their website) and then give to a friend who has to be responsible for giving it to the front when signing in.
Again, why can’t you just ask the question: “Did anyone refer you today sir?”  This actually happened to me a few years back.  On a follow up root canal visit, Dr. Higginson made a point to tell me that he had at least 4 people come in from my work & volunteer that they heard Lighthouse Dental was the place to go.  He adjusted my bill right then & there and said “Thank you so much, it means a lot to us.”  I didn’t need the incentive of a movie or dinner to give the recommendation, I did it because he is good and I wanted to tell people about it.

ROI?:
Can this be tracked just by asking and not having official cards? I am not a programmer, but my guess is that there is referral software out there that would keep track of how referred who & when.  Or I think Excel would work just fine.

Lesson Learned:
Don’t beg and don’t make your customers beg to others. You have a great business, great customer service, great people and something  I don’t want to live with out.  Reward with surprise and not expected outcomes.

Yes, I DO hate my bank's checking account!

My husband brought home a bank flyer from Addison Avenue, his credit union at HP. (bad cell phone pic on left) and I fell in love with the marketing due to the copy and the design.  Not the offerings (not yet, at least).

I love this marketing and I want to share with you why: I am a Gen X’r gosh darnit and I am sick of seeing marketing material geared to the Boomers-this is FOR ME!!  When I first read the copy, I had to smile and say “all right, all right, all right!” (And if you say it like David Wooderson, even better).  There is nothing on this that would appeal to my parent’s generation. No fluffy words, no coddling about how I am important to them nor that they know who keeps them in business.  All that fluff is just that-a bunch of fluffy no duh.

My friends are going to tell me the soft mushy stuff about a business - I want to know if you know me & what I am going through. Case in point:

“Admit it, you hate your bank’s checking account – it’s time to kick the habit”.

YEA! Tell me like it is!  It’s about time!  The inside copy is just as real when it comes to their offerings about ATM Fees compared to the other guys (aka: the same bank I had in college):

“Get real. We refund all the ATM fees you incur, so you can use any ATM in the US for free.”

Yea, get real big banks! Quit filling me with your magic marketing words that doesn’t distinguish you between every other bank nor me from every other person out there.  Reality is: all banks do the same thing. They keep your money, lend it out and you get the priviledge of keeping it there between pay checks.  But they spoke to me in my language – a no BS, give it to me the way it is, kind of way.

The colors: wow, the colors. It’s a cross between a Pottery Barn catalog (nummy) and a what a hip, post-grunge bar would look like. Boo-ya.

Be real or be the same. I don’t even have to go to the website BankIntervention.com to know that this is the bank for ME!! Thank you Addison, you are speaking my language, reality. (Pretty funny stuff though:  ”I learned it from YOU Dad, I learned it to you”) – beautiful.

By the way: this type of marketing is NOT for every business…but Addison has specifically and with-out a doubt decided to go after a demographic that is ACHING to belong to something and have something of our own.  Kudos.

Just a very quick post about Twitter etiquette and your social media strategy.  Oh, please tell me you have a Twitter strategy and you are not just one of those people who sign up for some spammy way of following 5000 people in one month.  Remember, it’s about engagement & reaching out to connect….

Please don’t make me another notch on your Twitter Bed Post – it makes me feel used & dirty.

Much love,
-jen

For ANY business that has ever-ever-ever hesitated or is contemplating why they need social media…please take 6 minutes of your life & watch this video of a report that you can also download for free.  Your CEO/VC will thank you in the end.

And if you still balk at the thought of having someone inside your company dedicated to social media…see you in the dust my friend!

I want you to take a look at: Social Media Marketing Industry Report