Influence is a tricky thing. If in striving to be influential you succeed, at what cost. If failure is your outcome what can you learn? In either case it’s worth asking “was it worth it?”. No problem with influence here, but influence is best when it is a result of other business and marketing activities. The reality is, many strive for influence to get the sale, what can often be overlooked is that the most profitable influence happens after the sale, when customers have experienced results of your product or service. 

Influence without the Hype

It’s true, there are many over-promised and over-hyped Internet marketing products, viable prospects are looking for a reason to dismiss offers in many markets. Yet those new to Internet marketing can be subject to influence gone wrong.

For those striving for influence, it may be that they don’t have it at all. If successful, is it influence, or something else? Important as influence may be in business and life, in my experience it begins to break down when authenticity is compromised.

In marketing, a good principle to consider is giving them (visitors and prospects) what they want on the front end, and what they need, on the back end. Show them you understand the pain in their world, and that you have a working solution, and you have influence.

Recently I attended a seminar where some ideas shared about influence, specifically when working with clients:

Influence Tips

1.) Establish Trust- People are influenced only by someone they trust.
2.) Educate- The more your clients know, the better.
3.) Explain Why- “It worked on my last three projects.” (demonstrating experience), or “It would cost less.” (demonstrating partnership). etc.
4.) Do it in private - If there is something you need to share that is likely to be mis-understood in a group setting, do it in private, it’s less confronting.
5.) Show them, then sell them - This is the “free sample” strategy. Could be a case study of what other clients have experienced.
6.) Balance the give and take - Recognize that sometimes you have to give a little to get something in return.
7.) Sooner is better than later - Clarity is important, but no matter what you do there can be unknown expectations. These get firmed up the longer they are left alone. Deliver services as soon as possible, so any unknown expectations come to the surface and adjustments can be made early in the process.

These tips seem to fall in line with common sense in most areas of life, especially business. Sometimes in our quests, however, they can get lost…so they can get lost.

Caution: A problem arises when we focus on being influential. The 7 items above can serve as influence indicators if you like. They are a partial list of attributes of those who influence.

How do you react to this? What are attributes of those who have been influential in your professional experiences? Love to hear from you in the comment boxes below.

Image credit: Just_Bryan

Let’s agree on something right now. Internet Marketing is not simple. Principles exist, as with any business, but as a whole it’s not simple. 

What makes it ‘not’ simple? The first half of that phrase, Internet. Agreed? 

Good.

Marketing is simple. Couple it with Internet, and things get complex in a hurry.

You may not have world-class mad skills at copywriting, email marketing, blogging, video, social media marketing, SEO, PPC, or any other point technical Internet marketing skill, marketing  alone still equals (=) simple.

Say It With Me ‘I am a marketer’

Some among us find it difficult.

If that’s you, don’t dodge it any longer.

You may not know everything there is to know about “Internet Marketing” (who does?) but that doesn’t disqualify you.

You are a marketer.

Let me explain.

It’s all about how you define marketing.

Marketing in it’s essence is persuasion. Education that invokes change in behavior.

Persuasion requires leadership.

If you can persuade, you do so by marketing.

Telling a story that compels the listener to act is marketing.

Marketing precedes selling in most cases.

This post is marketing the topic of marketing.

If you are still reading, this post is having success persuading (to a degree).

Those turned off will tune out. Those turned on will tune in, and turn it up.

We all want to be heard. It’s up to us to lead by compelling others to listen. That effort is marketing. It’s that simple.

So no need to deny it any longer.

You are persuading, prodding, but hopefully not begging, people to engage your stuff.

If you do it well, you get rewarded.

It starts with the agreement in your heart and mind that “You are a marketer.”

It’s your turn.

I am a marketer. (Read that again, out loud, it’s ok.)

There.

All better.

Back to work.
Photo credit: Hans_van_Rijnberk

There are many ways to accelerate and supercharge a marketing career. It involves hard work, salesmanship, and even a little luck. It’s important to understand your goals in light of the phase of your career and why change might be just what you need. If marketing is indeed your game there are three possible avenues to consider. As always, your comments an input are welcome.

Super-Charge Your Marketing Career

Understanding Your Goals

Zig Ziglar is to have said “Aim at nothing, and you’ll hit it every time.” For those of you “running your own show” it’s easy to forget the reason you went into business to begin with. Taking time to put down the hammer and pick up the pencil in your business and life is critical. (Tweet Me)

Thinking about what you want to do is good, better is still is understanding *why* you want to do what you want to do.

If you haven’t yet set aside time for dedicated goal setting or business planning, it is great to do as the New Year approaches, just be careful.

Consider the phase of your career: When thinking of goals, be sure to think long-term. It’s a natural trait of most entrepreneurs to be optimistic, but it’s not against the rules to do some contingency planning should things not go according to plan. If you are younger in your career, on the surface you can afford greater risks. The idea being, there is more time to recover than someone who is further along in their career.

Regardless of size or number, goals are key.

Example: I liken it to investments. Several years ago, I was a part of an investment that didn’t turn out well. Let’s just say I lost a lot of money. Everyone in the investment lost. There were several who were of retirement age. One was a friend ended up going back to school. She hoped to get a job to support herself and her husband with the increasing medical bills from his recent cancer diagnosis. Upon completing school, jobs were hard to come by. Today she’s outside her profession working in a retail store.

As difficult as financial recovery has been for everyone, no more difficult than for those on the near side of retirement. For me and my family, time was on our side more than our friends.

It is wise to consider risk against the season of your career.

Assuming you are in motion. Which way are you going? Toward entrepreneurship, away from entrepreneurship, or perhaps you’re a fit for an emerging hybrid option (more on that in a moment).

Time for a Change?

Change is all around us. Personal and professional growth is key in adding value in the marketplace. If you aren’t growing, have been doing the same thing for years, or doing something that has little alignment with your gifts or talents (and likely little or no joy) it may be time for a change.

A Word About Opportunities

Some of the best opportunities may come when you least expect it. This has been true for me, and has often resulted in the best situations. Sometimes, you need to be more aggressive, intentional, preparing yourself for that next opportunity. You can do this simply by informing your network that you are considering other career options. This can consist of former colleagues, family members, your church, etc. with personal phone calls, or emails.

CAUTION: Buffets of Opportunities Ahead

In preparing for an opportunity, it’s also important to dedicate regular time to social networking activities. While not the only source, LinkedIn is the most notable source for job and career related profiles. With well over 100 million users, it is also most widely used. Learn techniques I use to maximize LinkedIn here.

Look at what trusted advisors and partners are doing. Social networking is great, but nothing will replace face-to-face time. Perhaps they are interested in partnering to make a more compelling offer to the marketplace, or maybe they have a part or full-time opportunity that fits nicely with your skill set and goals.

Is Marketing Your Game?

Sometimes subscribers dabble in marketing, learn it wasn’t for them, and move on. Others dip their toe in marketing, fall in love, and go all in. Both situations are good because they move you closer to where you should be.

It’s important to have confidence that marketing is where you want to be. Need help? Here are some reasons to have a career in online marketing.

Some Want to Be at Home Solopreneurs

Solo-act entrepreneurs

If you are eager to work at home alone, and have all the benefits, freedom, and challenges that presents, the solopreneur path may be the one for you. The Internet is setup for situations like this; you might consider starting in affiliate marketing.

This is ideal for those who have a lifestyle that lends itself to the flexibility that the work-at-home world offers. Sometimes family and health issues force people into making this lifestyle change. As for moving your career forward, you will have to be a quick study and have an ability to implement quickly.

With the current conditions of operating an Internet-based business, to come from nowhere and build a full-time income you will take hard work. You may want to outsource tasks, or even hire staff to accelerate things a bit . This brings us to the next option.

Classical Entrepreneurship

Moving beyond the solopreneur, you believe that success is a team sport, and you are willing to do what it takes to sell and implement your ideas by building a team. This fits a more classic entrepreneur.

As an online marketer, success in this role means you develop systems that are flexible, repeatable, and transferrable to incoming employees. You will develop a nice set of results-oriented online and offline data most solopreneurs will never attain.

Hybrid – The Coopreneurs

This is a word I’ve never heard before, who knows, maybe the word was just ‘coined’ here. At any rate, Coopreneurs are entrepreneurial individuals (perhaps solopreneurs) working with larger organizations that value and can harness the energy and assets an entrepreneur brings to the table. They work together toward common goals, often involving aggressive growth. This is a rare combination, but when it works it can be a very rewarding and mutually beneficial.

The Coopreneur: An entrepreneur who looks to connect their talent and experience with other entrepreneurs.

It’s unique because entrepreneurial individuals have a reputation of not lasting in a situation where they aren’t running the show, and organizations that bring them in are equally reluctant concerned that entrepreneurs might leave when they get bored, overcome a short-term financial hardship or both.

For online marketers, entering in this situation offers the potential of working without common fears associated with non-coopreneur opportunities. Everyone knows going in that this is an entrepreneurial relationship for both parties, with the goals of leveraging one another for the common good. These are environments that encourage continuing education, are fast paced, and make decisions quickly. A great combination to propel ones online marketing career.

I imagine there is a list of companies that embrace this coopreneurs approach, I just didn’t find one. Drop a comment if you can recommend one (or some). From my own experience, Infusionsoft is one such company. Learn about my coopreneurship with Infusionsoft here.

Getting Your Online Marketing Career Super-Charged

In the end supercharging an online marketing career involves clarity on what you want to accomplish, as well as coming across the right opportunity. Whether striking out on your own as a solopreneur, aiming to build a team as an entrepreneur, or becoming a coopreneur. In every case there can be a fit to take your personal and online marketing career development to the next level.
Image Credits: Perry French, HikingArtist.com, USAG-Humphreys, jonrawlinson, runneralan2004

Have you heard of Tim Tebow? If you are in the US, and pay attention to sports, you may have. I like sports and share some things about it from time to time (like here and here). I think there are a lot of lessons sports can provide us in marketing, business, and life.

Tim Tebow is a second year player in the NFL. In his first year in the league, before taking any snaps or having his first professional debut his jersey was the best-selling jersey in the league and currently surging.

He is a winner.

He was the first sophomore college player to win the Heisman Trophy (essentially the MVP of college football). His team won two national championships under his 4 years of leadership.

Yet he confounds most NFL sports analysts.

Marketing Tim Tebow Style!

He is not an accurate thrower. He resists ‘staying in the pocket’, important for most quarterbacks in the Pros, as the NFL favors those who can pass the ball well. He doesn’t have good footwork they say, yet he has the 3rd most rushing of any other quarterback so far this year. Some say he shouldn’t be winning.

Yet he does win. He and his teammates have become the most respected and feared in the league in the last few minutes. In fact, the Denver Broncos (the team Tim Tebow plays for) have won 6 of the 7 games Tim Tebow has started, and of those 6, 4 were won in last 3 minutes of the game, and 4 of those wins were on the road.

He took over the team when it was in last place with 1 win and 4 losses, and now are tied for first place with 4 games to go, having won 5 road games in a row, the first time since the team did it with now boss John Elway at quarterback in 1998 (the year of their last championship, and Elway’s final year). More stats here.

What can marketers learn from this? A LOT.

Tim Tebow is a controversial figure. He honors his God by praying before and at various points throughout a game, and “Tebowing” as it’s called has been added to the English dictionary (well, maybe…). There’s even a website dedicated to Tebowing around the world.

Know What You Believe

Tim Tebow style marketing means you know what you believe, and live that. In Tim’s case he gets a lot of flak for giving Jesus Christ glory and credit in his interviews. It appears he doesn’t care much what people think. Born into a missionary family, based on his college career it seems he’s been this way much of his adult life.

What do you believe in? What would happen if you were that bold? You’d be marketing Tim Tebow style!

Understand Your Talents and Limitations

“It wasn’t pretty, but fortunately we got the job done, and got the win.” Tim knows that he gives NFL sports analysts a lot of fodder to critique his style of play, mechanics, and etc. He doesn’t deny that. He seems to openly acknowledge his game needs work. Nobody likes to acknowledge limitations or weaknesses they have, let alone talk about it.

What part of your “game” are you not so good at? (Tweet Me) Are you open about it with your colleagues, coworkers, and peers…to get better? If so you’d be marketing Tim Tebow style!

Work Hard

Understanding your weaknesses, doesn’t mean you just accept it. Apparently neither does Tim. His coaches have said that Tim has one of the hardest working young players they’ve seen. Evidence of this is the fact that they’ve changed their game plan to cater to his strengths instead of game plans that demonstrate his weaknesses.

Surround Yourself with Skilled Position Players

A professional on any level understands that his or her success isn’t a solo act. Position players are key to victory. Tim understands this and regularly praises his teammates for “making me look better than I really am.” 

As an online marketer you cannot do it all. If you are just getting started, it may be a decent hosting service or an email marketing service to start. When you are further along adding a virtual assistant or other key position players will free you up to “look better than you really are.” In which case you’d be marketing Tim Tebow style!

Remain Coachable

Based on the NFL analysts’ comments from the beginning, it’s pretty clear that Tim Tebow’s game needs a decent amount of work to be positioned for long-term success in the NFL. Despite of his success (instant millionaire out of college) he knows it, has a desire to get better, is working hard, and based on his comments, knows his coaches can help him get there.

You may or may not have a professional coach, but it’s important to have someone who understands what you are attempting to do to act as a coach. It could be a spouse, parent, or someone who is a leader in your industry. And, as you may have guessed, being coachable means you’d be marketing Tim Tebow style!

Lead by Example

See “Work Hard” section above. Turns out his teammates have responded well to his effort, and respect his leadership. In part because they see him in practice and off the field, in part because they believe he gives them a great chance to win. This creates a rallying effect with his teammates, and it is fun to watch. Here’s a comment.

“He’s the comeback kid,” said Broncos wide receiver Eric Decker. “That’s what we call him. He brings this attitude about him that he’s so positive and always optimistic. That does rub off on guys. To be able to consecutively do this on the road, at home and in the fourth quarter is great. If we have a chance to win, we’re going to win.”

Leaders leading by example in the office and in their market, not asking others to do things they aren’t willing to do themselves, can experience this rallying effect as well, and are marketing Tim Tebow style!

Remain Humble

I watched the post-game interview after a thrilling victory by Tim Tebow and the Broncos earlier this season. Tim was asked questions, and had every opportunity to accept credit and glory for his play, but he went the high road, and commented on how his teammates made all the difference and gave Glory to God for the chance to play a game he loves.

Use Success to Communicate a Life Changing Message (Tweet Me)

An interesting part of that post-game interview was when Tim clarified that as much as he loves the game, football is not what defines him. As wonderful as that win was, that he’s more concerned for the hospital he’s building in the Philippines and the lives it has the potential to impact. That football provides a platform for him to give glory to God, and be an example to an up and coming generation.

Not everyone agrees with Tim’s message, but as long as he’s winning he will have a platform to share his message.

What’s clear? Tim knows his purpose, and it lies outside the lines of the playing field. What is your purpose off the playing field? Knowing it, and moving toward it means you’re marketing Tim Tebow style!

What Will Tim Tebow Marketing Lead To?

Some say Tim Tebow may be paving the way for future quarterbacks whose style doesn’t translate well from college to the NFL. While they are currently 7-5, and have had an amazing run, it’s too early to tell if this will change the game for future quarterbacks.

What we do know is Tim’s faith and belief in his teammates and coaches has led to victories in a year that looked to be a “throw away” season after the first 5 (1-4) games. His outlook and humility is refreshing in a sports culture that has many celebrating their own success.

For Bronco fans and the NFL this may go down as the year of Tim Tebow.

What does it mean for you? While marketing Tim Tebow style is somewhat tongue in cheek, make no mistake the lessons for marketers like you and me are numerous. As you know what you believe, your talents and limitations, work hard, surround yourself with great teammates, lead by example and remain humble, you too will be in a position to communicate a life changing message…your purpose. On purpose. What better marketing is there than that?

As a consumer, do you like Black Friday or hate it? As a marketer? Salesman? Owner? Discussions go in every possible direction on this topic. Some business owners feel it is a great way to boost sales, still others think it sends the wrong message to the market. There rarely seems to be any consensus on it.

What’s true is in the B2C world? Black Friday is a big deal.

Whenever possible, we like to share the best of breed tools for new or seasoned marketers that are available for free or at a reasonable price. As in previous years, we try to provide a collection of products that are offering black Friday deals. This post contains items for Black Friday/Cyber Monday 2011 that are ideal for seasoned or aspiring Internet marketers.

Internet Marketing Black Friday Cyber Monday Deals

Not all products offer Black Friday/Cyber Monday promotions, in fact some of our favorite products for Internet marketers don’t offer any incentives at all. These aren’t all the deals available, but they are ones of products I enjoy or have friends who do (I don’t own a Mac yet).

Below, the Black Friday specials are organized into two categories. Those specific to Internet Marketing, and those that are utilities for PC or Mac that I receive questions on periodically from subscribers.

On to those deals…

Internet Marketing Black Friday and Cyber Monday Specials

HostGator Black Friday Special …EXTENDED

Last year Hostgator offered some of the best hosting deals online marketers have seen.

More than having great prices, I’ve found Hostgator to be excellent with customer service.

This deal has been extended, through 11:59pm CST November 28, 2011, cyber Monday you can save 50% on their already affordable hosting:

Go here to take advantage of this offer.

GoDaddy.com Black Friday and Cyber Monday Special

This year GoDaddy.com is offering $5 .com domains. You can check it out here, or select the image below to be taken to their page. Look for the special pricing as you checkout (it may not be on the landing page). They may offer you hosting, but I advise against that, go with HostGator.

One of the top registrars on the Internet gets in the Black Friday game.

iThemes WordPress Theme Black Friday Cyber Monday Special

I’m just getting familiar with iThemes. They have been around for a while, and those that I speak to about them rave about the diversity of WordPress themes they offer, with elegant designs. They also have an offering for their plugin suite, more on that shortly.

One thing they do different is charge annually for their software. On the surface this may sound “costly”, but in my opinion it speaks of a viable business model. Customers pay them a little each year to keep their products current and supported.

If you aren’t familiar with iTheme, you can see their Black Friday cyber Monday Special here, or select the image below and use promo code FREESHIPPING on checkout to save 28% on their iTheme All Access Theme Pass

iTheme Members can choose from gobs-o-themes.

PluginBuddy and BackupBuddy Black Friday Cyber Monday Special. Technology can be painful at times, especially when stuff fails, hard drives crash etc. That’s why I’m a big fan of backing up, but it has to be simple and automatic! This is where BackupBuddy comes in. It’s part of the Pluginbuddy Developer Suite the folks at iThemes have put together. All the plugins in the suite are great, but this is the standout plugin for sure. BackupBuddy even places backup files in your Amazon S3 account or Dropbox account. See the PluginBuddy black Friday offer here, or select the image below for details on the PluginBuddy Developer Suite.

Easy backup, restore, and migration for WordPress blogs. Gets everything.

DigitalAccessPass Membership Software Black Friday Cyber Monday Special

Having a membership site can be a great business model. What’s the best software to manage your members? Glad you asked. I’ve had a great experience with DigitalAccessPass. (More info available in our DigitalAccessPass Review).

WordPress and non-WordPress site Admins can Use DAP to manage site members

They are throwing in $164 in revenue generating plugins for new unlimited site license customers. The product creator is a married couple, and the husband Ravi told me they have never offered this bundle at this price before. Great for those needing software to manage members. Check out the DigitalAccessPass Black Friday Special here.

Black Friday Cyber Monday Software Specials

PC software is also handy to keep online marketers rolling in the right direction, here are a few I like.

Mozy Online Backup Black Friday Cyber Monday Deal

In keeping with the backup theme mentioned earlier, PCs crash, and losing data is painful. I’ve used Mozy for over 3 years, it is software on my Windows PC, that backs up the files and folders I choose, automatically, to their secure servers over the Internet. When they emailed me indicating that this offer would not be available through their website, I wanted to be sure to include them in this post.  Mozy informed me that if you go through this link and use the promo code SPENDLESS you’ll save 25% off your initial purchase.

Mozy is an online backup solution for Mac and PC.

The best savings would therefore be on the 2 year plan, but you can also do month to month, $5.99 for one computer, $9.99 for up to 3 computers. Again save %25 using  this link and use the promo code SPENDLESS.

Parallels Black Friday Cyber Monday Special

Only for Mac Users: Trying to cut over to Mac, but still need to run apps on a PC? Emulate a PC right from within your Mac OS with Parallels. And for Black Friday save $20.  Use this link to get the savings right in their shopping cart.

Parallels shopping cart with the Black Friday offer.

Tweet Adder Black Friday Cyber Monday Special

Tweet Adder makes it easy for social media managers and others to manage single or multiple Twitter profiles. It is robust and comprehensive in its functionality. Here is our review of tweet adder.

This offer isn’t just for Black Friday, but is worth mentioning due to the many people purchase through our link and don’t use the coupon code!

Tweet Adder is a great way to set Twitter accounts on auto-pilot (legally).

Save 20% with the promo code: TRAV20 you can purchase the latest version here.

Avast Anti-Virus Black Friday Cyber Monday Special

This may seem a bit out in left field, but have you ever had a virus wreak havoc on your system? If not, let me tell you, it seriously hampers your marketing productivity. Every few years I end up hunting around to find an anti-virus program that is reasonably lightweight, doesn’t slow my system down dramatically, and is known for catching viruses well before they run their course.

Enter Avast.

Avast shopping cart with the Black Friday offer.

As you can see by the image, Avast is offering 20% savings off their Internet Security product. If you are up for renewal on a different product, I highly recommend Avast (and I’ve tried most of the products out there over the years).

Black Friday Cyber Monday- Good or Bad for Business?

Whether you participate as a consumer or as someone running an online business one thing is for sure, Black Friday is a big deal.

NOTE: If you are someone who is just starting out and have no discretionary funds, no matter how good a deal it is, it probably doesn’t make sense to go into debt to buy hosting, or any of these items (well, maybe the backup solutions). More help here.

I, for one, am glad that these offers are available, especially for those just getting started in Internet marketing. Does your business offer Black Friday specials? Do you shop for Black Friday deals? Chime in below.

Most day’s I peruse a series of sites via Pulse on the iPad or my Android phone, or via my (cluttered) Google Reader account. This morning there were a few things that caught my eye, and I’ve decided to highlight them here. Some of these are information oriented, and others have personal productivity elements (mobile app, and LinkedIn) to them. Interested in your thoughts.

What I’m Reading Today

• Google continues to update their suite of products, today they are making Chrome even more app-ealing.
• User data from Google is highlighted here is a breakdown of it’s latest report (if you are an email subscriber here, you know why the country featured is of interest to me…*smile*). Brazil leads Google removal requests, US dominates user data inquiries.
• Do you own an iPad? This caught my attention as a recent trip to San Diego relegated my iPad connection-less to the hotel’s ‘free’ wireless. This article suggests that iPads are the reason Wi-Fi is so bad, and may not be free much longer. What do you think?
• I like Facebook. Apparently not everyone shares that love. Apparently, there is a market for those who despise the most popular website on the Internet. Anti-Facebook Social Network “Unthink” Launches To Public.
• iPhone user? Android? If you travel there are several apps that are a must, here is one of them. TripAdvisor a Traveler’s Dream Companion App.
• LinkedIn continues to be one of my favorite social networks for business. You can see a screenshot with some of my results here (scroll down that page). Today Farnoosh Brock of Prolific Living share some useful guidelines of How to Use LinkedIn to Create Unique Opportunities for Your Blog Business.

Was this useful? Please share with your social networks using the sharing buttons found in this page, or chime in below.
Image credit: Robby van Moor

The sports landscape was altered as the General Manager Theo Epstein, who helped lead the Red Sox to win their first world series title in 90+ years only to repeat 3 years later years, left for the Chicago Cubs organization.

This as the echos of dismay from a historic collapse in the last month of the season still resound far and wide from the Red Sox faithful.

It got me thinking about leadership.

A Crisis of Leadership

The team that had positioned themselves in the off season to trump the division rival and long-standing foe New York Yankees didn’t even make the playoffs. Early September had the Red Sox had 84 wins and 54 losses a half game behind the division leading Yankees, but a 9 game lead over the Tampa Bay Rays for the wildcard playoff spot. Having 24 games remaining in September and one of the highest payrolls in baseball, they were a near mathematical lock for the playoffs.

They lost 20 games.

It is now considered the worst collapse in the history of the sport. The Atlanta Braves weren’t far behind in their collapse having had an 8.5 game lead for the wildcard in early September as well.

What happened?

After the dust settles it appears to be a crisis of clubhouse leadership. Only the players and managers involved know the real issues, but the report is of personal and health issues on the part of the manager, and of players drinking beer, eating chicken, and playing video games during games.

Certainly there is more to unfold with this story, and the team and fans will suffer for it the more it plays out in the media.

Why it Caused Me to Think About Leadership

Here’s the conversation that was going on in my head.

Marketing Take-Away

I find myself challenged with these ideas. The bottom-line? Take care of customers and they will take care of you.

The Red Sox had a Crisis of Leadership, both on in the clubhouse and in the front office. They rested on the success of their recent past, taking their eyes off the ultimate goal before them. The result was historic.

Leaders need to know what is going on, and make sure the team has a vision and leader to spur them on to excellence. Focusing on delivering on your promises (marketing), and then some, will create an environment where customers will be able to to confidently recommend you or your company to others. For Red Sox fans, there’s always next year, let’s hope the leaders in the organization have learned something.

How do you react to this as a customer? As a business professional or business owner?

Image credit: Paul Stevenson

Mistakes are inevitable. 

In marketing, and in life.

Not long ago Netflix made some changes to their pricing structure, followed by spinning off a new DVD only service in an effort to focus on their growth segment, movie streaming. 

We shared some lessons and observations on the announcement and its reaction.

It seems they are acknowledging the error of their ways and attempting to correct course. Today they announced that their forthcoming DVD service Qwikster is not to be. Apparently they are getting some flak for it. Here’s why I’m encouraged by this news, and some marketing takeaways.

Netflix Cancels Qwikster DVD Service, Reactions, Lessons

In the same way Rome wasn’t built in a day, companies like Netflix often find it difficult to make sweeping changes, especially ones that impact there very culture. Changing an approach to the market from a technology focused road map to a customer/market driven product road map is no easy feat. However, today’s announcement is encouraging.

Involving Customers in Product Direction, by Choice, or by Force

Customer inclusion in product road maps is done preferably at the will of the product maker, and sometimes by the will of the customer,  often at great cost. Products not responding to customers input quickly become irrelevant. There’s nothing like loosing sales (or the threat thereof) or angering the marketplace to promote change.

Netflix has responded. Realizing what was obvious to many others, the pain of managing two profiles, along with movie preferences, queue, and etc., they responded to the market killing the Qwikster offering.

Marketer Takeaway’s

So what else is there to learn from Netflix (initial lessons here)? A few things I’m thinking about:

Customer focused, marketing oriented organizations can leverage social media to create greater intimacy with customers. Allowing them move in a direction more meaningful to customers and profitable to the organization. As difficult as it may be, here’s hoping that Netflix has a change of heart and finds a way to include customers early on in with new product ideas.

How did you react to this news? 

His innovative mind and mark on the technology landscape is significant and lasting.

Here is the report from cnn.com, complete with a rundown of his accomplishments.

Apple has created their own tribute by updating their home page (screenshot below).

Twitter has a few things to say as well (also below).

I remember working on an Apple IIe in junior high, and I knew this thing was amazing. Thanks Steve, I hope you are enjoying the peace and beauty beyond your wildest imaginations.

Honoring Steve Jobs 1955-2011

On Twitter…

Had a good conversation yesterday with someone I’ve known for over 25 years. He’s always been one a guy who has a clever way of looking at things. He is very smart. We were talking about Apple’s latest announcement. He is in IT, and his company is going to be affected to some degree with a portion of yesterday’s “iPhone 4s” announcement.

It was an engaging conversation about strategy, and where things are going in the world of technology.

There are a some good things for marketers to learn from this announcement, and I think the conversation my friend and I had highlighted some of those things.

What Have We Learned from Apple’s Announcement

Yesterday Apple announced the iPhone 4s. Essentially it is the iPhone 4 body rebuilt. Offering:

What have we learned from Apple?

Some Telling Humor – Everything’s Amazing and Nobody’s Happy

Yesterday I saw this old video and shared it on Google+, fitting in light of the “dud” responses yesterday. Funny, but also an indicator of expectations in our tech driven world. Can’t see it below? Find it here. Disclaimer: there is profanity in one spot (bleeped out). We do not endorse this comedian, but find this segment funny and thought provoking.

Splash Isn’t Always Necessary

It’s been widely reported that the announcement was a dud. People have complained as to the length of the announcement. It appears the stock price took a hit. Perhaps people have been conditioned with “ground breaking” announcements, or maybe something else. Here’s the thing, when you “create and control” a market as Apple does, you don’ t need jaw dropping announcements every time.

Apple is a “Why Marketing” company (more on that here). As such they have a cause, and are building loyalty through the customers experience with them and their products.

Go for New Markets

Bringing the camera specs up to par with competitors is essentially what happened with the announcement. However, the new lens and supporting technology combined take this to another level. While it doesn’t make this a Digital SLR, iPhone photo enthusiasts will be pleased, which is not limited to the half million cool iPhone photos on flickr.

Not to mention it’s integration with iCloud. Nice to have photos taken on the iPhone appear on your iPad, or Mac.

What new and somewhat related markets could you be pursuing that current customers are already engaged in?

Music Taking a Back Seat?

With the growth of Spotify and other “free” social music services, it’s interesting that Apple had nothing to say about music. Another service I’m testing, Rdio also has 2 paid levels, customers can spend up to $10 a month and get unlimited music.

It’s still early yet, so far nothing from Apple on this… They are likely working on it.

Amazon is in the Game for Real

My friend talked about why he’s intrigued with Amazon’s recent announcement. Amazon has music (MP3s), and books on their device. Its most expensive device (the Fire), is $199. While it has a smaller screen (7″) than the iPad and larger Android tablets, when considering Amazon’s own Cloud back end the only thing Amazon is missing is personal media. There is no camera or microphone on current or announced devices. Not to mention Kindle reader and MP3 apps are available for Apple and Android based devices.

The Silk browser that comes with the new Kindle’s is both controversial and revolutionary, as it will use Amazon’s Cloud infrastructure to render and deliver online content to devices much faster than processor based rendering engines of their competitors.

Amazon is differentiated themselves with the how’s of their browser technology. How are you differentiating yourself, your company, your products, and your marketing from the competition?

Some Take-Aways for Marketers

As it often is when having engaging conversations, one of the bi-products of the conversation was clarity. Companies like Apple are great to watch and learn. As stated in an anticipation marketing post recently, there are things to consider applying in our own business. Here are some things I came away thinking about:

These were my takeaways on Apple’s announcement after a conversation with an old friend. He and his company may have their work cut out for them as Apple enters their market. While Apple may not have entered your market yesterday, but you’ve read thus far…what are some takeaways for your current situation? Chime in below.