What’s your breaking point on email overload? Responses vary but a USA Today article says that for most small business owners it’s 50 emails a day.
And no wonder, with everything else we have to juggle on a daily basis. Email becomes another source of frustration that we can’t ignore because we might miss an important message from a customer or supplier.
I know people who refuse to take vacation because they don’t want to tackle the piles of emails waiting for their return. Or they feel compelled to check email every day even on vacation – just in case.
Here’s a 3 step technique I use to tame the email monster:
1). Open your email application and create a new folder. Call it anything you want – OldMail, Pending, Defer etc. You only need to do this step once.
2). On a daily basis, quickly browse the subject and sender lines of your in-basket, however, don’t open any of them. Note any that Must be answered today. Use a very stringent criteria, such as only those from a customer, supplier or partner. Don’t be mislead by those that are labeled urgent. This is the sender’s priority, not yours.
3). Take all the emails that you didn’t select in step 2 and move them to your Pending folder.
You should now be left with a very small list of items which need an immediate response. Tackle those and feel the sense of relief and accomplishment that ensues. Close your email application and move on to the top priority project you’ve determined needs your attention today.
Finally, schedule a time to open your Pending folder, maybe twice a week to view those non-urgent emails. You may find that you can just delete them. Just like a newspaper, if it’s a couple of days old, it’s value is probably close to zero.
I couldn’t resist the play on words in the title of today’s blog post. I started watching Celebrity Apprentice primarily to watch the antics of the ex-Governor of Illinois. I figured it would be good for a few laughs. Of course, once I started watching, I couldn’t resist putting my coach’s hat on and looking for lessons that I could share with my readers. The answer to my daughter’s question: “Are you taking notes?!?!?” was yes.
A crowded diner and lines around the block is a good thing, right? In the case of episode 1 of Season 3 on Celebrity Apprentice it wasn’t enough to win the Food Fight challenge.
The challenge was to manage a New York diner for three hours. The team who collected the most money in food purchases and tips would win the challenge with the winnings going to charity. The “rock solid” men’s team chose a strategy of creating a high priced menu with a $100 truffle burger as it’s showcase. The ‘tenacity’ women’s team chose a strategy of lower priced $10 burgers to attract the average person off the street and supplementing that by inviting high rollers from their rolodex who would give them large tips.
At the beginning of the challenge, it looked like the women’s team would win because they had a line waiting at the door as soon as they opened. The men’s team on the other hand were scaring walk-in’s away with their high prices.
But as the challenge progressed, the women became more and more overwhelmed with the volume of customers. They couldn’t effectively execute their strategy and many of their high rollers were left waiting on the sidewalk unable to get in due to the large crowds.
The men on the other hand started attracting people from Wall St. and other customers with lots of discretionary funds who liked the prestige of being able to order a $100 burger. Their diner was busy but not overwhelmed and in the end, the men brought in twice as much money as the women and won the challenge.
There were two keys to the men’s success. First, they focused on the ultimate goal which was making the most money in a short period of time. The diner was only open for 3 hours. The other key to their success was in emphasizing that the proceeds were going to charity and justifying the high prices based on that. Ultimately, it allowed their ideal clients to self-select themselves.
Each of us has to answer these critical questions as we develop our products and services:
Who is my ideal client and what will encourage them to take action and purchase my products?
How do I plan to reach my revenue targets? Will I sell a few high priced products or many lower priced products?
Do I have business processes which will support my revenue model and allow me to handle my expected volume?
Whether you have a store front or are an expertise based business, if you haven’t thought through these questions, you may hear from your clients: “You’re Fired!”
The New Orleans Times-Picayune said it best – Amen! in 5″ high type. The road to their first Super Bowl appearance and victory for the New Orleans Saints was 43 years long and covered in bumps, bruises and set-backs. They played for twenty years before having a winning season. But in 2009, the Saints set a winning record and paved the way for their Super Bowl appearance.
In 43 years, a lot has changed in the way that football is played but even more so in the way that companies are spending their marketing dollars.The average cost for a 60 second spot is now $3M. Some companies, such as Pepsi Cola decided to pull out of the Super Bowl this year and spend their ad money on social media campaigns and other projects instead.
While I’m an advocate for social media marketing, there is still plenty of opportunity for traditional marketing channels such as print and TV. We have changed the way we watch television. We no longer sit and watch passively. We are browsing the web with our laptops and cell phones and posting comments in real time to Twitter and Face Book while we watch.
One very smart company, Homeaway.com seems to have figured that out. They combined the instant and widespread reach of a superbowl ad with an innovative social media strategy to extend the value of their spot and increase their return on investment.
The leader in online vacation rentals, Homeaway.com generated 1 million views to their website immediately following their ad which was based on National Lampoon’s Vacation movies.Visits to their web site continue to go up today and are currently tracking at 500% more than before the ad aired.
Homeaway.com did several things very well.
They captured people’s interest with a funny ad which tapped into our common experiences of hotel stays gone horribly wrong.
The timing of the ad was perfectbecause many people are starting to plan their spring and summer vacations.
They tapped into an immediate need for reliable and reasonably priced lodging and positioned themselves as the solution to that need.
They combined the on air ad with a website campaign for consumers to share their stories of hotel horrors for the chance to win one of four $10,000 family vacations. They set up the campaign beautifully for widespread viral participation and sharing by inviting the public to vote on the worst stories.
We can incorporate these same strategies into our marketing plans regardless of the size of our budget. Let me know in the comments if you try any of these and how they work for you.
For more inspiration and examples check out the Mashable blog which has a review of some other super bowl- social media strategies.
I’ve been enjoying the Australian Open tennis competition. Any of the Grand Slam tournaments carry an element of surprising upsets, annoying injuries and tough competition. A continuing source of annoyance for me are the player interviews after each match. At best, no new information surfaces and at worst, we have to watch the players try not to give away their strategies if they’ve won or mask their disappointment if they’ve lost.
Post play interviews hit a new low for me after the quarterfinal match won by Venus Williams. In her post game interview, one of the announcers was commenting on the fact that she is now one of the oldest players on the circuit and wondering how much longer she intended to play and what she might do after her tennis career was over. Before Ms. Willliams could answer, the other announcer chimed in and said “well whatever you do, you will never equal the success you’ve had on the tennis court. After all, you’ve been number 1 in the world here”. Venus went on to answer the original question, but for me, it was one of those times that I wanted interactive TV so that I could tell Venus ” Don’t let other people place their limitations on your success”.
As Entrepreneurs, we frequently have well meaning friends and family question our choice to be our own boss. We’re told to get something more stable, that comes with regular hours and benefits. We constantly have to remind others that even though we work in a home office, we are really working. It’s tempting to get discouraged especially if you haven’t yet achieved monetary success or lots of customers. But resist you must, because you are limited only by what YOU believe to be true and the amount of effort you’re willing to expend to achieve your dream.
I’m reading the revised edition of the classic book Think and Grow Rich by Napolean Hill and it contains one of the best examples of not buying into others limitations, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Arnie came to the U.S. as a young body builder and achieved the top accolades in that field. I can hear his friends and family telling him to stick with a sure thing but Arnie had other ideas. He used his knowledge about physical fitness to create a mail order exercise business and a company that produced body building events.
Then he imagined a bigger goal for himself – to become as big in the movie world as he was in body building. He could see himself as a movie star and he turned down minor roles until he got his big break in Conan the Barbarian. He became one of the highest paid actors in Hollywood. He continued to set even bigger goals and became an entrepreneur in real estate, restaurants and other enterprises, becoming a multi-millionaire along the way. As we know, he then entered politics and is now the Governor of California. I can bet that when he came to America as a teenager, no one could have predicted the success he would achieve.
Despite the critics and the naysayers, we have the ability to achieve the success of our dreams by focusing on our strengths and adapting them for use in new ventures. There are many examples of people who didn’t accept other’s limitations for them. I want to be one of them and I hope you do, too.
The Celebrity Branding Agency has a fantastic post about the dangers of being inconsistent with your brand image. Not only do you send mixed messages but you miss opportunities to engage your customers and strengthen your brand.
In their example, they talk about a Mercedes dealer who provides loaner cars to their best clients but the loaner cars are Hondas. The customer is left wondering why they didn’t receive a Mercedes loaner. If they have a good experience with the loaner, they may start thinking that it might be OK to consider another brand. None of us wants to be in a position where we are highlighting the value of our competitor’s product, but that’s exactly what this dealer is doing.
Just think about this. Their best customers are also repeat customers. They have bought from this dealer in the past. Due to the economic environment today, they may be thinking of postponing that next purchase decision. What a perfect opportunity to provide them with a later model Mercedes loaner and some information that would entice them to say: ” I gotta get one of these!”.
We each have the risk in our own businesses of falling into the trap that this car dealer did. We ignore opportunities to put ourselves in our customer’s shoes and come up with new ways to entice and amaze them. This week, look at all of the ways that you touch your customers and identify at least one area where you are missing an opportunity to extend your brand or where you are sending a mixed message and correct it. You’ll be rewarded with more loyal customers.
There is a hot debate going on at the Mashable blog. Seems that Australian based Woolworths Limited has unveiled a logo which looks suspiciously like the Apple computer logo. The company sells a variety of products and brands such as food & grocery, liquor, gasoline, general merchandise and consumer electronics. According to Woolworths, the new logo is a stylized “W” paired with an “abstract leaf symbol”. When building a brand identity, the question I always ask is whether the logo supports the company’s brand and does it adhere to the rules of good logo design.
Visiting Woolworth’s web site I see that their tag line is ‘The fresh food people’ and the copy focuses on their supermarket brand. When viewed in this context, the logo does look a bit like an apple but that doesn’t automatically mean it infringes on the Apple logo. If I take off my glasses and squint, it looks like a green tomato. Or as one person said in the comments to the Mashable post, it looks like a pumpkin. All of those images give the impression of fresh produce which ties nicely to the tag line.
Now let’s see if the logo holds up under analysis of good logo design:
Can you describe it? Yes. It’s an abstract letter ‘W’ with a leaf on top.
Is it memorable? Yes. It’s very distinctive and you will be able to recognize it.
Is it effective in plain black and white? Yes. The shape is very clean without a lot of detail.
Is it scalable? Yes. It looks just as good when used in a small print ad as when it is on the side of a produce truck.
If Woolworths’ goal is to convey the idea of fresh produce, the logo they’ve come up with does achieve that goal, especially when paired with the tag line. Whether or not it infringes on the Apple logo, I’m happy to defer to the lawyers.
I got a kick out of Seth Godin’s ‘Tiny Picture’ blog post. Most social networking sites force you to insert your profile photo into a small handful of pixels. Seth has some great suggestions on how to use that space wisely. I’d like to offer up a recommendation that he didn’t – always put up a profile photo! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve looked at someone’s profile, only to see the default gray box, question mark,smiley face or whatever icon the site owners use as the default.
When you meet someone at a networking event, you immediately form an impression based on how they look. It’s not fair but that’s the way it is. Some sources say that people form an impression about you in the first 3-5 seconds. They base that impression on how you’re dressed, whether you smile and seem approachable. Only then do they listen to the words you say. When you use social networking to build your brandonline, a picture really is worth a thousand words because it must replace those clues that people would normally pick up in a face to face encounter.
What message are you sending to potential clients or business partners if your profile photo is a blank gray box? In my mind, it says that the individual is either too lazy to put in the effort or isn’t really serious about using the site. Either way, that’s not a person that I feel will bring value to me so I won’t follow them or friend them.
Other pet peeves of mine that are mentioned in Seth’s post are:
Don’t have other people, pets, your boat or motorcycle in the photo with you. The photo is TINY! Other people and objects take up valuable space and prevent people from really seeing you.
Smile. You want to give the impression that you would be fun to work with, not that you will be grumpy or scare small children.
Crop your photo as tightly as you can to focus on your face. Did I mention the photo is TINY?
Putting a little effort into making a good first impression on social networking sites will give you the opportunity to make a second impression. What are your pet peeves about profile photos? Let me know in the comments. And if you want a copy of my Linked-In Profile Action Guide, you can request a copy here.
“Two Scoops!” Those are the words that woke me up when I was supposed to be watching TV last night but was dozing on the sofa instead. If I told you the commercial was for a breakfast cereal, you’d probably guess pretty quickly that it was Kellogg’s Raisin Bran. On their web site they write:
“With so many raisin bran choices, what does one smiling sun offer that generations have loved? Why, Two Scoops® of delicious raisins, of course!”
You know immediately what distinguishes them from their competition. They’ve chosen to call out a feature of their cereal that makes them unique from all the other cereal brands and is almost impossible to challenge. Notice they don’t say they are the best tasting. Maybe they are, but that claim can be easily attacked by their competitors.They also don’t say that they’re the cheapest. They’re not interested in making a claim which could force them into a price war.
The other thing they do in these two simple sentences is to focus on the benefits of their brand to their customers. They’re letting customers know that they will provide not just a handful, but two big scoops and they reinforce that image right on the front of the box.
I challenge you to look at the marketing and advertising for your brand and see if they pass the tests of demonstrating an ‘obvious value’ to your customers and making it difficult for your competitors to challenge.
I was preparing for a call today previewing my upcoming Business Retreat in October and decided to check the Time and Date web site to see how many days we had left in the year. To my shock, we have less than 100 days before we ring in the year! Wow! As usual, time has flown by. I don’t know about you but some of the goals that I had set for my business didn’t come to fruition. Some of it was lack of focus on my part and some of it was due to the unpredictable things that happen during the course of a year.
Now I’m energized to cross a few more things off of my action list in the next 99 days. One of those things is to build up readership in this blog. My previous blog was very successful with lots of readers, but the title and content no longer matched perfectly with the direction that I want to take my business brand. So I’m starting at ground zero again both with content and readership.
What do you plan to do before year end to raise the visibility and profitability of your brand? Here are few questions to start your thought process:
Do you have a mission statement for your business?
If so, does it link back to your life mission statement and your personal brand?
Do you use social networking to establish yourself as an expert and generate leads?
Do you have a marketing plan and is it up to date?
These are some basic, but often overlooked areas that every business should have. Remember that the new year will happen regardless of whether we take action or not. When you look back at 2009, what will your assessment be of the progress you made in defining and enhancing your brand?
The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index™ is an ambitious 25-year project whose goal is to collect and measure the daily pulse of the well-being of U.S. workers. By interviewing at least 1000 people each day, the project aims to help people create a better way of life by understanding how work affects life and health and vice-versa. It’s no surprise that the index dropped from a high of 66 in January ’08 to a low of 63 in December ’08. The good news is that the index had continued to climb in 2009 and is at 67 as of August.
As part of this effort, the group released the findings of a survey of over 100,000 working adults. Business Owners ranked highest in overall contentment over professionals such as doctors and lawyers and corporate managers. The Wall St. Journal profiles one of those business owners, Roger the Plumber, in a recent article. According to the article, even though Roger has had to lay some of his employees, he still loves the work that he does and is excited to help his customers solve their plumbing problems. He feels that even in hard times, he is in control of his own destiny. Roger is a wonderful example of someone who is living his brand.
What’s your breaking point on email overload? Responses vary but a USA Today article says that for most small business owners it’s 50 emails a day.
I couldn’t resist the play on words in the title of today’s blog post. I started watching Celebrity Apprentice primarily to watch the antics of the ex-Governor of Illinois. I figured it would be good for a few laughs. Of course, once I started watching, I couldn’t resist putting my coach’s hat on and looking for lessons that I could share with my readers. The answer to my daughter’s question: “Are you taking notes?!?!?” was yes.
I’ve been enjoying the Australian Open tennis competition. Any of the Grand Slam tournaments carry an element of surprising upsets, annoying injuries and tough competition. A continuing source of annoyance for me are the player interviews after each match. At best, no new information surfaces and at worst, we have to watch the players try not to give away their strategies if they’ve won or mask their disappointment if they’ve lost.
The Celebrity Branding Agency has a 
There is a hot debate going on at the 
“Two Scoops!” Those are the words that woke me up when I was supposed to be watching TV last night but was dozing on the sofa instead. If I told you the commercial was for a breakfast cereal, you’d probably guess pretty quickly that it was Kellogg’s Raisin Bran. On their web site they write:
I was preparing for a call today previewing my upcoming 
