Brand Breakout

It’s amazing what being nice will get you life. It’s even more amazing what it will do to your brand and your business. Establishing goodwill and loyalty with your audience should be a main area you focus on. When you perform acts of goodwill for your audience they will reward you with loyalty and love. Treat people right and they will treat your brand right.

Here’s 10 things you can do to establish goodwill with your market. But don’t stop with these 10, always strive to do something cool for them.

#1: Provide Unexpected Surprises

People love surprises and when you can surprise a customer with something cool and unexpected they’ll love you forever. I’ve sent books and food to my members, among other things, for no reason whatsoever. You don’t need a reason to do something cool for someone. I’ve attended events where the organizer brought out a surprise guest. The ideas are endless. Don’t worry about the cost. You’ll end up making more money, generate strong word of mouth, and keep customers longer.

#2: Be Real

The word “transparent” gets thrown around a lot these days. You have to have a brand that is completely open and transparent. If you screw up (and you will at some point) be honest and real with your audience. They know you’re human and they’ll respect you a thousand times more for being upfront and real with them.

Don’t ever try to hide something or trick people. This is the kind of stuff that gives marketers a bad name and it makes you a first class douche-bag. Make sure everything you do and offer is crystal clear. You’ll do more business that way.

#3: Always Make Your Customer Happy

The customer is not always right. I’m not sure who originally said that, but they are an idiot. That being said your focus should be on making your customers life happier. Have them leave feeling better than they were prior to coming into contact with you. It doesn’t matter whether it’s an email, blog post, video, product, or whatever. It’s incredibly important to make sure they’re happy they came in contact with you.

A customer who is truly happy with your content, product, or service is a customer who will buy time and time again. Don’t try to just leave them satisfied…leave them blown away.

#4: Be Consistent

When it comes to your brand or your business, the market demands consistency. They aren’t looking for a johnny-come-lately or someone who’s here-today-gone-tomorrow. They want to know they can depend on you. For someone to become of a fan of yours or your business you must let them know they can always count on you to deliver.

Consistency builds confidence with consumers. Be sure to focus on being consistent and reliable.

#5: Give More Than You Pitch

I love to sell. I love the art of selling. But I also know that I’ll sell more when I give first. A strong brand is built on trust. No one wants to be pitched to over and over. No one will trust a brand that offers little content while throwing a pitch down their throat. I’m not saying you can’t pitch, by all means do. You’ll have to if you want to survive and thrive.

But there has to be a balance. I’m not sure there’s a magic number but I like to follow the 80/20 rule. So in content that will include a pitch I like to have 80% be great content while the remaining 20% is left for the pitch. You can also follow a 4:1 ratio. This works best when your content is actually good. Don’t put out crap. If your content sucks then it doesn’t matter if you give us 10 pieces of content for every 1 pitch.

#6: Care About The Relationship With Your Audience

Everything you do is branding. Every interaction you have with your target audience is either increasing that relationship or hurting it. The more value you provide for your audience the stronger the relationship will be. You can’t build a sustainable brand without caring greatly about your audience.

Be aware that every email you send, every blog post, every Facebook or Twitter comment should add value to your audience. Care about them…it shows.

#7: Give Back

Make no mistake about it…giving to charity is a good marketing strategy. And there’s nothing wrong with it. If there’s a charity that speaks to your heart and you are in a position to give back then it’s your obligation. You’ll often see offers that mention a certain percentage is going to X charity. This is a win-win-win.

The customer wins because they get the product/service they want and they can feel good about themselves for helping someone in need. The charity wins because they are getting donations and attention they wouldn’t have had otherwise. And you win because it’s showing the community that you care. And when you can involve your customers in giving back you’ll build a super-tight relationship with them.

#8: Provide More Value Than What You Charge

People believe they get what they pay for. So how do you generate massive buzz and word of mouth for your business? Simply over-deliver. I personally hate the phrase over-deliver because it’s been used so much it has lost it’s impact. That being said, any time you can go above and beyond what your customer is expecting you win…BIG TIME.

Let’s say you charge $500 for your product. If the value you provide your customers is clearly worth $1,000 or even more then you’re going to have some very happy customers. These are the kind of customers who keep coming back because they know you’ll treat them right and exceed their expectations.

#9: Spend Time On Your Audience, Ignore The Rest

Don’t make the mistake of focusing your time and energy on people who aren’t your target audience. I see this a LOT in the wonderful world of social media. You know better than to assume the whole world wants your product/service. That type of un-focused, blanket marketing is a recipe for disaster. Focus on your fans and focus on the people who will become fans.

The more time and energy you spend communicating with people who don’t fit your target market, the more you alienate the ones you really want. I’ve seen authors ignore every positive comment on Amazon.com about their book. And then turn around and respond to all the negative comments offering them some time on the phone. Here’s a tip: take care of those who take care of you and screw the haters.

#10: Follow Up AFTER Purchase

What do you when someone purchases your product or service? Once you’re done celebrating, do you follow up with them? I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that you don’t. But you should! Your product may be amazing but that doesn’t mean your customer will know how to properly use it or get the most out of it. A simple follow up phone call or email can go a LONG way towards strengthening the relationship with your customers.

Once someone makes a purchase they are a bajillion times more likely to purchase from you again. Don’t be ‘one and done’ when it comes to sales. You’re trying to build a stable business and you do that with repeat customers. Take care of them and help them get the most out of what you have to offer. The better the results they get and the more satisfied they are, the more likely they are to spread the word about what you do.

As you can see, it’s not hard to build goodwill with your market. Most of these tips should be a given anyways. Step back from your business and make a list of all the ways you’re building goodwill with your audience. Find the areas you can improve on and focus on those. None of this is hard to implement and there’s no excuse to not take care of your fans.

I had the pleasure of getting an advanced copy of Tony Hsieh’s new book Delivering Happiness. If you don’t know, Tony is the CEO of Zappos.com. If you aren’t familiar with Tony and with the amazing things that make Zappos an awesome company then shame on you. Zappos is incredibly successful by doing some incredibly simple things. The first being their focus on customer service. Good customer service isn’t a new idea by far. But by making it their number one priority they may have just perfected it.

This book is very interesting as Tony tells the story of how Zappos came about, the challenges along the way, and how they got to where they are today. It’s a very open and honest book which I really liked. This is NOT a ‘how-to’ book. Instead it’s a ‘here’s the crazy story of how we got here’ book.

And that’s why you should give it a read.

Because it’s always good to hear about how someone successful struggled. It allows you to understand you aren’t the only one facing challenges in your business. Tony stayed focused and always worked on solutions. There’s some huge lessons in this book. Here’s a few of my favorite points:

Always look for solutions and not problems. I’ve basically mentioned this one already but it’s really good so you needed to read it again

There’s no question that social media is an excellent way to build your brand. But the way you’re doing it could be murdering your brand. I know that sounds dramatic, but I see people killing their brand every day. I’m not talking about big companies who are trying to manage severe damage to their brand like BP. I’m talking about people destroying their personal brand without even realizing it.

Are you killing your brand?

Here’s the top 7 ways to murder your brand with social media:

#1: Blast After Blast With Little Interaction

I’m shocked that I still see people marketing their business without interacting with people. Don’t spend all day blasting Facebook and Twitter with your content without stopping to talk to people. The key word in social media is SOCIAL. Your audience wants to connect with you, and if your conversation is one-sided then you’ll quickly turn people off and they’ll tune you out. Once that happens you’re dead.

#2: Complain

This is a big pet peeve of mine. Most people don’t realize that when you use Twitter and Facebook to complain about a business you end up looking just as bad. We get that AT&T sucks, we don’t need you reminding us every day. While you’re trying to make someone or some business look bad you’re damaging your brand. There are several people I’ve been connected with that have killed all chances of me hiring them or recommending them to a friend. The reason is that people like to deal with positive people. When you complain all the time you sound like someone who can’t be pleased. Keep your bashing to a minimum and remember that next time you decide to slam someone or some business that you look just as bad. Keep it classy and take the high road.

#3: Be Boring

This one sounds simple enough yet so many people aren’t putting their personality into what they do. There’s nothing wrong with using social media to build your brand and market your product/services. But if you are all business with no personality then it’s easy for your audience to disconnect with you. No one likes to hang out with boring people. The same is true online. If you want to stand out and get people to pay attention then give us something. Let us get to know you…we may end up liking you.

#4: Make Political Or Religious Remarks

This one drives me freaking crazy. One of the first thing I learned when it comes to sales is to keep your opinion to yourself. I’m blown away by how many people use social media as their soapbox when it comes to politics. If you’re not trying to build a brand or a business, then by all means make a fool of yourself. But if you’re trying to grow your brand and business then think twice before making your political or religious stance. When you slam the President as if all of your audience agrees, you’re showing how dumb you really are. Go ahead and slam the political party you’re against….and then I can congratulate you on alienating half of your audience.

Just because you have a voice doesn’t mean you have something to say.

#5: Talk To The Same People Over And Over

Social media isn’t the place to chose favorites. When was the last time you struck-up a conversation with someone on Facebook or Twitter who you don’t really know? Most people get comfortable and end up communicating with the same people time and time again. And usually these are people you are communicating with offline as well. Don’t abandon your social media strategy just to chit-chat with your buddies. Your prospects would LOVE to talk to you and get to know. They want you to get to know them. Use social media to engage and meet new people. Some of the coolest people I know I met via social media. Some of my best clients have come via social media. Start engaging.

#6: Too Many Repetitive Posts

So you’re raising money for charity or promoting a special give-a-way? Great, now leave us alone about it. I’ve seen people use 90% of their posts on Facebook or Twitter talking about one specific promotion. We get it. And because that’s all you seem to post about we can now easily tune you out. Mix in something new for us please. We love giveaways, promotions, etc…but we don’t need to hear about it 3 times a day for a week. Don’t make it easy for people to ignore you. Writing the same thing over and over will surely get you ignored.

#7: Not Being Active

This should be a given but it’s not. And let me say upfront that I’m not someone who believes you have to be on Facebook or Twitter every single day of your life. In fact, if you are then you probably don’t have much of a life. But I’ve seen people go weeks without a single update. I don’t mean to sound harsh (yes I do) but during this time we’ve forgot about you. The longer you’re absent the harder it’s going to be to come back in our lives and get us to care again. If you’re going to be offline for a while, no big deal, but let us know. Don’t disappear and re-appear for no reason. You’re not a magician. Be active and stay active.

There’s many more ways to destroy your brand with social media but if you’re doing several of these then you’ve got enough work ahead of you. Just be aware of what you’re doing to your brand. With social media people are watching every step. Always position yourself in the best light. Have fun and be real.

Carpe Diem!

You don’t have to look hard to find them. There’s more than enough. And no, I’m not talking about social media consultants…I’m talking about excuses. In business you’ll find there’s always an excuse at your disposal.

There’s always a reason something won’t work. There’s always a reason something can wait for tomorrow. There’s always an excuse.

Miss a deadline? There’s an excuse for that.
Forgot to return an email/phone call? There’s an excuse for that.
Not reaching your goals? There’s an excuse for that.

Few excuses in life are justifiable. Even fewer in business are acceptable.

Next week I launch a new program that I’m extremely excited about. It’s been in the works for several weeks now and during this time I had some challenges. I could have easily fallen back on a number of excuses.

During this time of working hard to get this project ready I ran into a lot of issues. The first being technical issues. Technology is not my friend. But I kept pushing forward, found some help, and got past those tech-troubles.

Also, during this time my wife and son had some doctor appointments that wasn’t anything serious but it could have been.

If that wasn’t enough Nashville experienced historic flooding causing me to leave my home for 2 days, and deal with a remodel of my home office. After getting a new floor in my office and throwing away 3 truck loads of items damaged by the water, things are finally starting to seem normal.

This isn’t a pity party for me. Don’t feel sorry for me.

It’s a lesson for you.

There’s always something. Something that will interrupt you, distract you, and cause you to delay working on your goals.

I could have easily delayed the launch of this project. I could have blamed it on being tired, or being under too much stress. But how do I know that once these issues went away there wouldn’t be more??? You can bet your life there would be.

Now, in full disclosure I have an awesome business partner in Dean Hunt. I was able to rely on him to continue making progress on the project but also to continue to push me. I didn’t want to let Dean down. Had I been doing this project by myself I’m not sure I would have resisted the urge to latch onto an excuse and stop working.

So my question to you is this…what’s your excuse?

When things aren’t going your way, or when things are get hard, do you keep pushing forward or do you stop and blame it on the closest excuse you can find?

If you’re desperately trying to become a successful entrepreneur then no excuse is good enough. It’s all a cop-out. Stop looking for every reason why something won’t work and look for every reason it will.

Because the reality is there will always be an excuse for you to fall back on.

Living in Nashville is always interesting. Especially when it comes to the weather. We get to experience a little bit of everything. A few years ago I got to experience a tornado ripping through my neighborhood.

This weekend, we got to experience a historic rain storm that has left Nashville and the surrounding areas flooded.

It’s been an unreal scene as I’ve watched homes and businesses be completely destroyed. The Opryland Hotel is filled with 10 feet of water. The stadium the TN Titans play at has water in it. The arena when the Nashville Predators play, and most major concerts take place is also filled with water.

I just want to write this post to thank all of you for your emails, phone calls, Facebook messages, etc. I’m happy to report that my family is fine, and my house is fine. I wish I could say the same for others in the area.

I’d also like to point out that during this chaotic time period, my business continued to run smoothly. Most businesses in the area have physical locations and many will not ever recover. Some early estimates are saying that Opryland Hotel has at least $20 million in damages.

Many of you in my audience want the freedom to work where and when you want.

I can tell you there isn’t a better feeling. We had to stay at my in-laws house (which explains just HOW bad things were!) because our house had no power. All I needed was my laptop. Actually, I can pretty much run my entire business with just my phone, BUT I’m about to launch a new program and there’s work to be done.

So with my laptop and a few handy tools like Skype. I was able to still get some work done, chat with my business partner in the UK, and basically make sure my business didn’t miss a beat.

I’m very lucky to have my business set up this way, but understand it was designed this way. Not just for times like this, but for anytime.

So my question for you is…how have you designed your business?

Does your business depend on you and only you? I hope not. You need to delegate and create awesome systems so your business can run with or without your daily involvement.

I’d love to read your comments on how you’ve created a business that serves you and not the other way around.