Cat's Eye Marketing Blog

No Time for Relationship Marketing: Why Can't I Just Sell Stuff?

Because selling without a relationship first makes me run away.

Remember the last time you were at the mall and you avoided eye contact with that carnival barker ahem, I mean, 22-year old clerk, at the T-shirt kiosk?

Or the time you got an email sales blast from some robot marketer you didn't even know and they called you by your first name? ("Hi Judy, I've been meaning to tell you about this cool [fill in the blank] we're offering only for the next 24 hours!!!!")

Always, the exclamation points.

In Internet marketing, we run away from people who pretend to know us but don't have a clue who we really are.

If you get this, you are in the top 5 percent of marketers on the web today.

Because I don't really know if I need your products or services yet.

Sometimes I don't know at first that I even need what you are trying to sell to me. It's pretty hard to establish a need, make an emotional connection, build credibility, and sell, all in one swoop.

Try a little empathy first. Relate to your reader. (There's that word again.) What are their problems, fears, dreams?

Because I've been screwed over before.

In other words, I don't trust you because that last guy took my money and gave me a crappy product and when I tried to reach him, I got no answer.

If you give first, your promises will be more likely to be believed.

Because there are too many others just like you out there.

But wait. Mr. Rogers said, "You are special. You are the only one like you."

How can you show that? Not by waving red-letter signs with exclamation points. You could try to have a conversation. Tell your customers and readers just why you can solve their problems better than anyone else. Why you are different.

Because I'm having an 'Alexander and the Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day' day

Like the boy in the picture book, maybe I woke up with gum in my hair and my brothers found the prizes in the cereal box and I got nothing and my teacher didn't like my drawing of the invisible castle and my dentist told me I have a cavity and…You get the point.

If you catch me on a bad day and I don't know who you are anyway, well, I'm not going to listen to you. Because I'm having a bad day, okay?

But if you are more of a friend, if you've been giving me good stuff all along and I happen to have a bad day, I'm probably not going to cross you off my list. I'll go back to your offer when I'm feeling better. Or I'll respond to another offer down the road.

My relationship marketing story

About a week and a half ago, I was honored to be a guest on The Brent and Brandi Show, an entertaining and engaging Internet radio show on marketing and branding. We talked about creative storytelling in the context of relationship marketing and, more specifically, content marketing. You can listen to the show here.

Do opportunities like this come out of the blue? I don't think so.

I met Brent Haeseker and Brandi Pierce on biznik.com, the ultra-cool business networking site for solopreneurs and indie professionals. We started talking online. We commented on each other's articles.

Later, Brent signed up for my weekly marketing etip and then subscribed to the blog. We were building the relationship. 

Six months later, I was a guest on the Brent and Brandi Show. Relationships don't always take six months to develop, but the point is, Brent and Brandi felt like they knew me. They had read my content and saw me as a credible "expert." How cool is that?

So, yeah, relationship marketing works for me. In so many ways and on so many levels.

What about you? Have good things come to you from relationship marketing?

P.S. Wanna start building more relationships? Follow me on Twitter!

I've Wanted to Be An SOB for a While. And Now I Am!

Seriously. Liz Strauss just called me an SOB. And I have the badge to prove it. (See official-looking pink badge on side of post.)

Wait. It's not the kind of SOB you think. Besides, I'm a woman so that would be physically impossible. 

This SOB is short for Successful and Outstanding Blogger. Liz, who has been called "the most influential relational blogger on the Internet," and was also named one of the 50 Most Powerful and Influential Women of Social Media, started the SOB club as a fun way to gather together bloggers who, in her words, "take the conversation to their readers, contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better and make our businesses stronger."

I am honored and humbled to join this amazing group of bloggers. Visit Liz's website and you'll find an A-Z Directory with the names of a bunch of very cool bloggers who are doing "successful and outstanding things." Actually I'm a little in awe of this company I'm keeping. 

Be sure when you visit Liz's site to read more about SOBCon, her incredible biz school for bloggers, in Chicago next year, starting on April 30. It's the most talked about blogging conference in the world of social media.

Thanks, Liz, for the recognition! I'll do my best to live up to it. 

Doing What You Think You Can't: Marketing for Scaredy-Cats

If you are a small business, chances are you've seen it all. You've done it all—or most of it.

As solopreneurs and small biz owners, we wear a million hats.

Seriously. I take out the garbage. I clean the office because my irresponsible cleaning man (notice I didn't say woman) never shows up.

Oh, wait. I don't have a cleaning man.

I make frequent trips to the bank to make sure the business checking account isn't in Overdraft Land. I make the coffee. And pour it. And deliver it to myself. And wash the cup. I fan the business bills out, then put them in neat little piles with dark pink sticky backs: Mail on the 5^th. Mail on the 10^th. Mail on the 20^th.

I answer my own phone (when I'm not in the bathroom). I take breaks to throw slices of whole wheat bread over the deck to the mama deer and her baby. Okay, that one was a little weird.

But what is it that we like to do?

When we—you and me— are deciding how to spend our workday, especially when it comes to the marketing part, we don't just throw a dart and see where it lands. (Well, maybe some of us do.)

Some things we do only because there is no one else to do them.

Then there are the parts of running our business that get us excited. The things that don't seem like a chore. The reason we went into business in the first place.

Funny how it works.

The things I like to do are the things I do best.

Or maybe it's the other way around.

I am best at the things I like to do.

Okay, if you don't have a left brain, like me, you are probably way beyond confused by now. You were probably the one who skipped right over those SAT questions on deductive reasoning.

For me, what I like to do, and what I do best are one and the same: crawling deep inside my brain and excavating new ideas. Telling stories. Not fiction (although that's cool, too). Stories that help small biz owners sell more of their products and services.

And blogging. I love to blog.

I like writing our marketing etips, coming up with new ways to get solopreneurs excited about marketing.

And shaking snow globes and watching the flakes fall. Still trying to figure out how to tie that into my writing. 

These are all solitary things, these things I like to do.

Does this blog post have a point? (As Steve Martin says, 'It makes it so much more interesting for the reader.')

Well, yes, I do have a point.

Many "experts" tell us to focus on our strengths, the things God, the universe, or whatever you want to call it, gifted us with.

You know, that day the fairy sprinkled you with dust and said, "You shall be able to attach a soup spoon to your nose and it will stay even if you shake your head." (Or whatever you’ve been gifted with.)

For me, it was turning out a decent sentence. Sometimes while making people laugh.

It never was giving a speech or acting in a play or, say, being a guest on a live radio show.

So what I did a month ago was a big deal. I climbed the steps to the high dive, and said (looks over edge nervously), "Okay. I'll do that one thing that ties my stomach in a double –strength knot. I will be interviewed on the radio."

Meaning live radio. No rewrites until I get the words perfect. No delete key if I screw up. Oh, and did I say it would be live?

Do the thing you thought you could not do.

When my daughter was in 8^th grade, her middle school had a program called "Dragon Slayers." Each month they would choose something the kids had never done, something that sounded scary hard to them. And they would all go out and do it.

Building self-esteem, they called it. 

Once they went rock rappelling. You know, that thing where you walk backwards down the face of a mountain with only a harness, gear, anchors, rope, and a large cup of courage? 

Another time they went white water rafting. 

Well, I decided to do the thing my middle school self fears most: being on stage. On May 15, I will be a guest on The Brent & Brandi Radio Show.

I got charmed into appearing to talk about storytelling and content marketing by the talented Brent Haeseker and the captivating Brandi Pierce, co-hosts extraordinaire. Please visit their websites and see all the other cool things they are doing.

If you have an hour—which you will never get back, mind you— tune in here. Would love to know that I have a silent, but supportive, audience. 

That's Friday, May 15, 1pm PST, 4pm Eastern time. Somewhere around 2pm, I think, if you are on Central time. 

I'll be there. Because I have a mountain to climb. Or a dragon to slay. Or whatever. 

Good Karma Edition: Taking Care of Our Customers

Have you ever wondered if you are insanely naiive? That maybe your business gives too much stuff out for free? Perhaps you are too helpful?

I mean, I like to help people. I love to help people. Bob and I have this unsigned pact. If someone asks us for advice, we will give it. 

There have been times when I have thought, "I might have been able to sell this person something."

But it didn't feel right. It wasn't what they needed. There was a better solution for them, less costly, more effective.

Okay. Here it comes. My good karma story.

We have an office in Renton, Washington, just south of Seattle. Two years ago, Bob got chatting with a woman who had an office in the same building. At the time, she was helping businesses and organizations showcase their products and services at trade shows.

She wanted to find out more about creating a promotional piece to sell her services on the trade show circuit.

Bob met her for coffee two separate times and answered as many of her questions as he could. She did not have a big marketing budget so he offered suggestions and advice for some cheaper self-promotion strategies.

None of his recommendations involved hiring a marketing, graphic design and copywriting firm.(Keep in mind, that's what we are.)

She left smiling. I mean, she really left. She moved out of the building and he didn't see her again—until two years later.

That's right. Two years later.

On our website contact form, one week ago, was a request.

"Hmm, that name looks familiar." Bob squinted at the screen.

It was her. The woman. She remembered that nice guy who gave her all that great advice, no strings attached. And she remembered the name, Cat's Eye Marketing.

What goes around…

You want to know what this woman wanted, don't you?

Well, she is now the marketing director for a large Seattle area company and, hey, she just needs graphic design and copywriting for a website. Oh, yes. And support to develop a strategy for reaching a brand new audience, and the marketing materials that go with that.

Okay, this doesn't always happen. But it happens enough.

Another time, a, shall I say, "picky," client drove us nuts with his endless requests for minor design changes on a presentation folder, until Bob wanted to reach for a gun.

"Just shoot me in the head," he said.

Yet this same client called a year and a half later, from New Jersey (which as you know is quite a few miles away from Seattle). He had relocated his business, but he remembered this great designer who listened to him and gave him exactly what he wanted.

Giving outstanding customer service—listening, responding, giving till it hurts—just seems to be so much work. But the rewards can be awesome. And they say, in this recession, it's what sets us apart from our competitors.

How about you? Has providing excellent customer service paid off for you? Is it worth it in the long run? Do your customers remember? If a client is difficult but comes back for more, do you even want to work with them?