Facebook has done something that should have probably been done a long time ago. You can now migrate your personal profile to a business or fan page.
Many businesses, and individuals whose business brand is themselves, have used personal profile accounts for their businesses. This has been problematic for them for a number of reasons, one of the most significant being the limitation of 5,000 “friends.” Now that can all go away.
I might mention that from my reading (I haven’t personally migrated a page, so I’m relying on the information of those who have), it appears there’s a loss of much of the data in one’s profile during this process. “Friends” are converted into “Likes,” but past there it seems pictures, posts, and profile data are wiped clean. And there is no reversal of the process once it’s been executed.
For all the details, read this informative blog from InsideFacebook.com and check out Facebook’s Help Center, which offers information on all the facets of the migration. If you choose to migrate your page, you can find the migration tool here.
I’ll watch these migrations with great interest. As with any such change, there will be those who benefit from it greatly, and those who will migrate, only to find myriad reasons they should have stayed with their original profile. I already see hiccups in such a move for the majority of people who have used their profiles for a mix of personal and business use.
Here’s to your social networking success!
Bryan Waldon Pope
No fluff. No hype. Just real-world marketing insights for real business decision-makers
Monday, April 4, 2011
Monday, March 28, 2011
Customer and Client Satisfaction Utopia
Every business owner wants completely satisfied customers or clients. Here are four realizations I’ve experienced we can all use to help us reach this Utopia.
Realization #1: I can’t be everything to everyone.
This was a tough one for me to learn. There was a time I truly believed I could be all things to all people. But as time has passed, I’ve realized the power of the niche. If we decide who we are and what we’re about, we can create a following in just about any space we choose.
Realization #2: I can be the best at one thing.
In the movie, “City Slickers,” Jack Palance’s character, Curly, tells Billy Crystal’s character, Mitch, the secret to life is one thing. When Mitch asks what the one thing is, Curly tells him that’s what he has to figure out.
So is the challenge for each of us. When we each figure out what the one thing is for us, we can move forward with full confidence and achieve greater success than we have previously imagined. I looked for my “one thing” for a long time before understanding it was right in front of me. It has proven to be increasingly powerful as I’ve acted on it.
Realization #3: I must consistently make up-front agreements.
We’re all products of our experiences. Because of this, many situations in which a person feels mistreated isn’t because another party is trying to do the wrong thing, but rather because we all have different opinions as to what is acceptable or expected. A simple, but not necessarily easy, way to overcome this hurdle is to consistently make up-front agreements with those with whom we are doing business.
Assume nothing. Disclose everything. Re-check levels of understanding and agreement often.
This may seem like overkill, but when a misunderstanding does arise, the chances of being seen as a fair person who works hard to avoid such conflict just may be the difference between saving or losing a client.
Realization #4: If a shortcoming is mine, I’ll eat it.
No matter how hard we try to foresee every possible contingency, life is just too fast and unpredictable to always be right. That may be a hard fact to swallow, but it’s true nevertheless. Despite our best efforts to be focused, to be the best at what we do, and to make meaningful agreements with others, we’re going to misstep from time to time. When a shortcoming is ours, or even when we see that from another’s perspective it could be ours, we should be quick to take ownership and make things right.
This may mean some extra time on our part, it may require the addition of some value to a transaction to create compensation for the misunderstanding, and it may even take money out of our pockets at times. In the end, we lose little (and often gain a lot) by being stand-up and watching out for the best interests of our clients and others with whom we do business.
Should we become door mats for every abuser who comes our way? Absolutely not. But that’s a topic for another day…
Here’s to your marketing success!
Bryan Waldon Pope
Realization #1: I can’t be everything to everyone.
This was a tough one for me to learn. There was a time I truly believed I could be all things to all people. But as time has passed, I’ve realized the power of the niche. If we decide who we are and what we’re about, we can create a following in just about any space we choose.
Realization #2: I can be the best at one thing.
In the movie, “City Slickers,” Jack Palance’s character, Curly, tells Billy Crystal’s character, Mitch, the secret to life is one thing. When Mitch asks what the one thing is, Curly tells him that’s what he has to figure out.
So is the challenge for each of us. When we each figure out what the one thing is for us, we can move forward with full confidence and achieve greater success than we have previously imagined. I looked for my “one thing” for a long time before understanding it was right in front of me. It has proven to be increasingly powerful as I’ve acted on it.
Realization #3: I must consistently make up-front agreements.
We’re all products of our experiences. Because of this, many situations in which a person feels mistreated isn’t because another party is trying to do the wrong thing, but rather because we all have different opinions as to what is acceptable or expected. A simple, but not necessarily easy, way to overcome this hurdle is to consistently make up-front agreements with those with whom we are doing business.
Assume nothing. Disclose everything. Re-check levels of understanding and agreement often.
This may seem like overkill, but when a misunderstanding does arise, the chances of being seen as a fair person who works hard to avoid such conflict just may be the difference between saving or losing a client.
Realization #4: If a shortcoming is mine, I’ll eat it.
No matter how hard we try to foresee every possible contingency, life is just too fast and unpredictable to always be right. That may be a hard fact to swallow, but it’s true nevertheless. Despite our best efforts to be focused, to be the best at what we do, and to make meaningful agreements with others, we’re going to misstep from time to time. When a shortcoming is ours, or even when we see that from another’s perspective it could be ours, we should be quick to take ownership and make things right.
This may mean some extra time on our part, it may require the addition of some value to a transaction to create compensation for the misunderstanding, and it may even take money out of our pockets at times. In the end, we lose little (and often gain a lot) by being stand-up and watching out for the best interests of our clients and others with whom we do business.
Should we become door mats for every abuser who comes our way? Absolutely not. But that’s a topic for another day…
Here’s to your marketing success!
Bryan Waldon Pope
Monday, March 21, 2011
Small Increases That Bring Big Profits
Too often, we find ourselves concentrating on bringing in new customers and clients as the sole method of increasing revenues and profits. Building our client base is important, no doubt. But here’s a way to substantially increase revenues by adding two commonly overlooked variables to the mix beyond bringing in new clients.
Get MORE clients to spend MORE money MORE often. Let’s say we get 10% more clients to spend, on average, 10% more per transaction, and help those transactions happen 10% more often. That scenario could look something like this:
If we have 1,000 clients spending, on average, $100 per transaction, and that happens 10 times a year, we have gross revenues of $1,000,000. Not a bad little business. Applying the formula above, we now have 1,100 clients spending, on average, $110, with 11 transactions per year for total revenues of $1,331,000. That’s a revenue increase of over 33 percent with just 10% more clients! And if we run those numbers through our funnel to determine profits, we’ll see that, in most cases, a much larger percentage of our newly found revenues go to the bottom line since our fixed expenses are already covered prior to this increase.
While your situation may differ from my example, the principle holds true for all businesses. We’ll never have exactly the same increase in all three of these areas. Growth in each of these segments is easier or more difficult from industry to industry. My point is that we altogether too often don’t look at increasing the average value of each transaction or helping those transactions occur more often as significant means of increasing revenues. Run your own numbers based on your current situation and plausible opportunities for your business and see the difference these two often-forgotten variables can make in your revenues.
Here’s to your marketing success!
Bryan Waldon Pope
Get MORE clients to spend MORE money MORE often. Let’s say we get 10% more clients to spend, on average, 10% more per transaction, and help those transactions happen 10% more often. That scenario could look something like this:
If we have 1,000 clients spending, on average, $100 per transaction, and that happens 10 times a year, we have gross revenues of $1,000,000. Not a bad little business. Applying the formula above, we now have 1,100 clients spending, on average, $110, with 11 transactions per year for total revenues of $1,331,000. That’s a revenue increase of over 33 percent with just 10% more clients! And if we run those numbers through our funnel to determine profits, we’ll see that, in most cases, a much larger percentage of our newly found revenues go to the bottom line since our fixed expenses are already covered prior to this increase.
While your situation may differ from my example, the principle holds true for all businesses. We’ll never have exactly the same increase in all three of these areas. Growth in each of these segments is easier or more difficult from industry to industry. My point is that we altogether too often don’t look at increasing the average value of each transaction or helping those transactions occur more often as significant means of increasing revenues. Run your own numbers based on your current situation and plausible opportunities for your business and see the difference these two often-forgotten variables can make in your revenues.
Here’s to your marketing success!
Bryan Waldon Pope
Monday, March 7, 2011
The Myth of Dead Media
I keep hearing it from Internet marketing ‘gurus,’ and I’m sure you do too: Traditional media are dead.
Yes, the Internet and its accompanying technologies are powerful. They’re fun. And they can be wildly effective. There’s no question the uses of new technologies and the audiences they attract are growing at ever-increasing speeds. Only someone living in a cave would argue against these facts.
But this doesn’t mean old, low-tech media are dead. Not by a long shot. In fact, these changes may just make for some unique and potent uses of these long-standing marketing vehicles.
Consider these nuggets from our history: When TV came around, radio was surely on its way out, right? Apparently not. The fax machine was going to put a serious hurt on the overnight delivery business. Hmmm…seems FedEx, UPS, and others are doing just fine. And what about email? There’s the end to hard copy snail mail. Oh, wait! My snail mail campaigns are still beating email for response rate and profits.
The bottom line is this: there’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all answer to the best vehicles for us to use to carry our messages to our audiences. Use the Internet. Use other technologies. Test them just as you do any other medium for your messages. But make sure you’re not walking past willing prospects in the process by completely missing the places they read, socialize, look for answers, and make their purchases if they are not completely immersed in our techno-society. You may be surprised to find unclaimed territory where you can make a meaningful impact on your audience. Instead of simply following the hype, step back and do a little research of your own. As always, make sure you include your team in these efforts. Their insights can be invaluable.
Here’s to your on- and off-line marketing success!
Bryan Waldon Pope
Yes, the Internet and its accompanying technologies are powerful. They’re fun. And they can be wildly effective. There’s no question the uses of new technologies and the audiences they attract are growing at ever-increasing speeds. Only someone living in a cave would argue against these facts.
But this doesn’t mean old, low-tech media are dead. Not by a long shot. In fact, these changes may just make for some unique and potent uses of these long-standing marketing vehicles.
Consider these nuggets from our history: When TV came around, radio was surely on its way out, right? Apparently not. The fax machine was going to put a serious hurt on the overnight delivery business. Hmmm…seems FedEx, UPS, and others are doing just fine. And what about email? There’s the end to hard copy snail mail. Oh, wait! My snail mail campaigns are still beating email for response rate and profits.
The bottom line is this: there’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all answer to the best vehicles for us to use to carry our messages to our audiences. Use the Internet. Use other technologies. Test them just as you do any other medium for your messages. But make sure you’re not walking past willing prospects in the process by completely missing the places they read, socialize, look for answers, and make their purchases if they are not completely immersed in our techno-society. You may be surprised to find unclaimed territory where you can make a meaningful impact on your audience. Instead of simply following the hype, step back and do a little research of your own. As always, make sure you include your team in these efforts. Their insights can be invaluable.
Here’s to your on- and off-line marketing success!
Bryan Waldon Pope
Monday, February 28, 2011
Making the Most of Trade Shows, Expos, and Conferences
I spent a few days last week at an expo and a separate conference and, as always, was surprised at how few exhibitors and speakers had properly prepared for success. And that was just from my surface observations.
Although this isn’t an exhaustive list of possible preparations and actions, simply following these few key items would have made for a much more successful event for many of the companies that spent plenty of time and money to be in these shows. Here’s my short list of tips:
:: Decide what you want out of the show/expo/conference at the beginning of your planning, then create targeted actions based on your strategy. Capturing every attendee’s business card for a TV giveaway isn’t necessarily a good idea if your target audience is a small segment of those in attendance.
:: Give passers-by a reason to engage with the people at your booth. Far too many people set a table up at the front of the booth and sit behind it. Bad idea. Be accessible. Getting people out of the flow of traffic in the aisles into your booth can bring much better results in most cases.
:: Have a 3-second pitch to stop qualified attendees in their tracks. “How you doing?” isn’t what I’m talking about, either. At one show I helped a client prepare for, their pitch was this simple question: “Did your company have to fire more than 10 employees last year?” Everything about their booth asked this question and drew people in. They only talked to their target audience (HR managers with pain points surrounding employee turnover due to performance problems). The quality of their leads was impressive. No, they didn’t leave the show with the 1,500 business cards the people in the neighboring booth had; but they did leave with a few hundred qualified leads with whom they had meaningful conversations and specific follow-up agreements. They didn’t have to wade through the looky-loos to get to the serious prospects after the show.
:: Follow up. I’ve gone so far as to create business cards with specific, trackable contact information on them to give to exhibitors at events just to see how the follow-up is handled. Sadly, by far the majority of vendors never follow up at all. Why do the show and gather the information if you’re not going to proactively use it after the show?
Having a complete plan that addresses strategies and activities before, during, and after trade shows, expos, and conferences will help you meet the right people and achieve your desired results. Maybe I’ll write a book on this topic some day. For now, I hope these tips are helpful.
Here’s to your live event success!
Bryan Waldon Pope
Although this isn’t an exhaustive list of possible preparations and actions, simply following these few key items would have made for a much more successful event for many of the companies that spent plenty of time and money to be in these shows. Here’s my short list of tips:
:: Decide what you want out of the show/expo/conference at the beginning of your planning, then create targeted actions based on your strategy. Capturing every attendee’s business card for a TV giveaway isn’t necessarily a good idea if your target audience is a small segment of those in attendance.
:: Give passers-by a reason to engage with the people at your booth. Far too many people set a table up at the front of the booth and sit behind it. Bad idea. Be accessible. Getting people out of the flow of traffic in the aisles into your booth can bring much better results in most cases.
:: Have a 3-second pitch to stop qualified attendees in their tracks. “How you doing?” isn’t what I’m talking about, either. At one show I helped a client prepare for, their pitch was this simple question: “Did your company have to fire more than 10 employees last year?” Everything about their booth asked this question and drew people in. They only talked to their target audience (HR managers with pain points surrounding employee turnover due to performance problems). The quality of their leads was impressive. No, they didn’t leave the show with the 1,500 business cards the people in the neighboring booth had; but they did leave with a few hundred qualified leads with whom they had meaningful conversations and specific follow-up agreements. They didn’t have to wade through the looky-loos to get to the serious prospects after the show.
:: Follow up. I’ve gone so far as to create business cards with specific, trackable contact information on them to give to exhibitors at events just to see how the follow-up is handled. Sadly, by far the majority of vendors never follow up at all. Why do the show and gather the information if you’re not going to proactively use it after the show?
Having a complete plan that addresses strategies and activities before, during, and after trade shows, expos, and conferences will help you meet the right people and achieve your desired results. Maybe I’ll write a book on this topic some day. For now, I hope these tips are helpful.
Here’s to your live event success!
Bryan Waldon Pope
Monday, February 14, 2011
Nike’s and Wayne Gretzky’s Advice
For years, I’ve appreciate Nike’s tag line that tells us to “Just Do It.”
This past week, I’ve encountered a number of situations with clients, cohorts, and myself in which the answer has been, “Just Do It.” What a refreshing reminder! When we let doubt, fear, or any other obstacle keep us from getting out there and making our mark, we rob ourselves of the success we’re seeking.
Not sure if a campaign is ready to roll out? Just test it! Don’t know if the question you’re going to ask will lead that prospect to make a purchasing decision? Just ask it! Whatever the next step is you need to take to get your marketing results to the next level…Just do it!
Gather your team. Define what your company needs right now to move forward. Don’t focus on obstacles, but instead see solutions. Then act. Famed hockey legend Wayne Gretzky says it best when he reminds us that we miss 100% of the shots we never take. Take that shot.
Today is my day. How about you?
Here’s to your marketing success!
Bryan Waldon Pope
This past week, I’ve encountered a number of situations with clients, cohorts, and myself in which the answer has been, “Just Do It.” What a refreshing reminder! When we let doubt, fear, or any other obstacle keep us from getting out there and making our mark, we rob ourselves of the success we’re seeking.
Not sure if a campaign is ready to roll out? Just test it! Don’t know if the question you’re going to ask will lead that prospect to make a purchasing decision? Just ask it! Whatever the next step is you need to take to get your marketing results to the next level…Just do it!
Gather your team. Define what your company needs right now to move forward. Don’t focus on obstacles, but instead see solutions. Then act. Famed hockey legend Wayne Gretzky says it best when he reminds us that we miss 100% of the shots we never take. Take that shot.
Today is my day. How about you?
Here’s to your marketing success!
Bryan Waldon Pope
Monday, February 7, 2011
The Paradox of Superior Client Service
Consider these two statements:
“No one can be everything to everyone.”
“The customer is always right.”
We’ve heard both these statements many times. Most of us will agree that these two notions each have merit. But if they are both true, how can we offer great service to our clients?
If we spend our time creating one-off solutions for the exacting needs of each client, we can’t be efficient. If we don’t meet our clients’ desires, however, we won’t have a business very long. Where do we win?
Somewhere between a strict, cookie-cutter approach to the way we do what we do and an attitude of bending any direction possible on the whim of every prospect and client lies a place where we can be defined in what we do, yet still be flexible enough to meet our clients’ needs.
Rather than offer up specific solutions on this point, I’d like to begin a conversation. How do you balance the need for consistency with the requirement of meeting clients’ demands? How can we create a model in which some customization of products or services is part of how we do business without creating a resource overload?
I invite you to share your experiences, insights, and further questions on this topic below. We all have much to share from our own experiences. Let your experience benefit others.
Here’s to our collaborative success!
Bryan Waldon Pope
“No one can be everything to everyone.”
“The customer is always right.”
We’ve heard both these statements many times. Most of us will agree that these two notions each have merit. But if they are both true, how can we offer great service to our clients?
If we spend our time creating one-off solutions for the exacting needs of each client, we can’t be efficient. If we don’t meet our clients’ desires, however, we won’t have a business very long. Where do we win?
Somewhere between a strict, cookie-cutter approach to the way we do what we do and an attitude of bending any direction possible on the whim of every prospect and client lies a place where we can be defined in what we do, yet still be flexible enough to meet our clients’ needs.
Rather than offer up specific solutions on this point, I’d like to begin a conversation. How do you balance the need for consistency with the requirement of meeting clients’ demands? How can we create a model in which some customization of products or services is part of how we do business without creating a resource overload?
I invite you to share your experiences, insights, and further questions on this topic below. We all have much to share from our own experiences. Let your experience benefit others.
Here’s to our collaborative success!
Bryan Waldon Pope
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