Are You A Professional Marketing Tool?

A tool? That's how I read a subject line in an email: Name - Professional Marketing Tool. Clearly, the sender meant that they were offering a professional marketing tool but the juxtapositioning of the name and the subject sent a different message. I'm sure you've seen others. Here are some unintentionally funny signs. Some favorites: Loose Senior Citizen Center, Dead End (in front of cemetery) and Used Toilet Paper Rolls in Good Condition. Watch your words or Your words watch (click here for options)!

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Variety is the Spice of Life

If something is not working for you, try something new! If your message is boring, you might want to spice it up. People love to be entertained and surprised. How can you do that for your customers? Can you create a game out of identifying widgets that you send them? Can you send them a jumbo size calculator to help them save big? Can you send them a birthday card in the MAIL? (When was the last time you got one of those?) Mix it up - cards, gifts, emails, blogs, twitters,...surprise and inform. Keep them interested in your message and more likely to do business with you when the time comes.

An office desk has 400 times more bacteria than a toilet...maybe we should all hand out customized office wipes: We'll clean up your (fill in the blank) problems!

Slow Down for Good Corned Beef

We pride ourselves on being able to get things done efficiently and quickly. However, sometimes high speed does not get high results. The most immediate example is last night's corned beef and cabbage. It can't be done in 3 hours in a crock pot on high...apparently. It needs more time to cook. Ideas and solutions often need time to cook as well. The ingredients need to be assembled and prepped; they need to mix and simmer; they need to be tasted and tested; and then the solutions can be served up. Sure, a quick microwaved solution can be proposed, but will it be the best solution? After serving up the solution, the chef/problem solver reviews the results. What can be added or changed to make it better next time? Give yourself time to solve problems and serve up great solutions. Rush we can do but great results are better. Click here for brainstorming tips.

An Irish Blessing from O'2

May your pockets be heavy-
Your heart be light
And may good luck pursue you
Each morning and night

What's in a Name?

I have noticed a couple of recent naming contests: one for a gorilla and another for the Nasa Node 3. There's even a comedian Stephen Colbert who is asking his fans to put his name in for the Nasa Node. Marketing executives spend enormous amounts of time and money thinking about the names of products and services. Who would've thought that words like google and yahoo would end up being company names? I'd love to name headache medicines...ZapHead, NumbSkull, or ThroBgone. In the corporate wearable world, we get lots of names for green: celery, olive, moss, mint, lime. What would you name after yourself or what do you want to name?

Do. Doing. Done.

Here's a great referral article for everyone.

Happy Square Root Day!

It's a bit obscure and appeals to the nerd in some of us. It's 3/3/09 (the month and the day are the square root of the year). We had one in 2/2/04 and 1/1/01. The next one is 4/4/16. So, how do you plan to celebrate? Doing math puzzles? Checking out square images around the world? Eating root vegetables (carrots being the best)? How about emailing 3 people about your company's products or services and ask them to forward your email three people? You will have touched nine people with your message!

Green Eggs and Ham Marketing

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss! For years, our local elementary school has held a Dr. Seuss breakfast with green eggs and ham to celebrate his birthday and to promote reading. They also provide regular eggs for those too squeamish to eat the green ones. Many kids can not be convinced that the green ones taste the same as the regular ones. Other kids love eating the green ones, feeling very daring in the process. So, how does Sam convince his friend to eat them? By encouraging him to try them in many different ways (in a house, a car...). How can you encourage your customers to try you?

Think like Sam-
How many different ways can your customers work with you?
How many different ways can the customer pay?
How many different options can you offer?

You don't just want daring customers (there aren't as many of those). You need the regular egg eaters too. You will get more customers here and there; you will get them everywhere!