Dogged Determination

There's no substitute for dogged determination. I can't help but continue to gape in amazement at the NASA team and their multi-year quest to get the Phoenix lander to Mars. I mean, come on. It's NEWS that the thing is going to unbend it's arm. The arm is going to probe beneath the Martian surface to reach the water ice below and bring back lots of yummy subterranean bits and pieces for scientific analysis. All aimed at figuring out if somewhere, in some age, Mars supported life.



It's a lesson in patience, timing, perseverance, and faith. Nothing will test your mettle like slinging a big thing into the deep reaches of space, waiting 10 months, and hoping against hope that it goes where you told it to, not to mention landing on a planet light-years away and still working once it gets there.

There are many times when, in the marketing world, you try something and it doesn't work. (Yes, indeed, we are fallible creatures). Not every strategy is perfect, and despite your best efforts, sometimes you miss the mark. But still, we march on and try, try again to find the thing or combination of many things that will reach that new client or finally crystalize that elusive and compelling message for all to hear. When it happens, it's a beautiful thing. But by no means does it happen by accident.

Successful communication starts with something super important: people. Without them, there is no dialogue. And to forget that they're on the other end is a mistake. But if you don't reach them the first time, don't stop talking. It's a noisy world out there, and sometimes it's a matter of timing before you can be heard just right.

The team at NASA's JPL was an exuberant bunch of kids in that control room, watching the countdown and jumping up and down when they got the confirmation of Phoenix's successful landing. They deserve a round of applause, and a good pat on the back for staying the course when there were more questions than answers.

I'm putting a picture of Phoenix on my bulletin board, and every time I stumble, I'll be all the more determined to make a successful landing.

Hacked! LifeLock's CEO Gets Unlocked, After All.

Today, the LifeLock CEO was on the Today Show talking about how he got himself hacked by identity thieves - the very thing his company is in business to prevent.



Last week, Drew McLellan commented on his blog about the bravery of the marketing campaign in which Todd Davis boldly displays his own social security number on billboards, TV spots and the like as if daring the identity thieves to come and get him. I agreed! Talk about putting your money (and your credit and your private information) where your mouth is.

So what does this mean for Davis and LifeLock now? Have they lost brand equity because their very own CEO has been victimized?

I don't think so. Why? Because Davis came out and addressed the issue, point blank. He admitted that many people had attempted to use his information without success. And he insists that the damage would have been far worse had LifeLock not been protecting his identity.

I know that's probably a little happy-hearted, thinking that just because he talks about it, everything is ok. But the question is, was it really a failure of the company to fulfill its brand promise, or did Davis open the floodgates for people to attack him more vigorously, just like a Double Dog Dare?

Guess I'll be keeping an eye on LifeLock to see what's next for them. And I'll be shredding my documents more carefully, of course.

One Of These Clients is Not Like The Other

No one likes to be generalized. Lumped into a pile. Labeled. Assumed to be just like anyone else. And clients and customers are no different.

Sure, we may share certain tastes, values, opinions. But we're individuals and prefer to be treated that way.

Take the case of a woman we'll call Amy. She's a super talented friend of mine in the marketing world, and she's on the Big Job Hunt for a sparkly new position that will really let her show her stuff. So she's doing all the right things - networking, using her professional organization contacts, and she even met with a recruiter who sought her out. Which is where the trouble began.

Right off the bat, she's a senior level person and this firm is accustomed to a great deal of freelancers coming through their doors. They sent her a 14 page "application" to fill out, full of standard HIRE paperwork like tax forms and employment agreements (as would be appropriate for a freelancer, I assume). She hadn't even set foot through the door yet. The form email she got about her interview was clearly geared toward freelancers, didn't even have her name on it, and was chock full of information that didn't apply to her.

So before she's even met anyone, she's been made to feel like a number on a list. She asked questions like "did they even read my resume?" and "do they have any idea what I'm looking for in a career?". It sure didn't feel like it. At the very least, they could have taken out the verbiage and paperwork that was freelance-specific. But they succeeded in making Amy feel like a dollar sign to them.

We're all busy, and it's easy to give into the temptation of tossing out blanket communications in hopes of reaching many people at once. But while your clients and customers may share affinities for certain products or activities, don't make assumptions, and be careful about how you generalize the information you send out.

An extra five minutes to segment your email list or put a personal note on a direct mail postcard might be the difference between making that client or customer feel like a valued and understood member of your larger community or making them feel like a number on your mailing list.

Knowledge is portable.

If you don't read Seth Godin's blog already, first I'm going to hang tight while you go there and bookmark or feedburn or otherwise connect to it.

Done? Ok good.

Seth says a couple of things today that made me go YES! loudly, in my office, to the confusion of Riley, my dog.

#1) Knowledge workers should not have to go to the office every day. I've long been amazed that we marketing -PR-creative type people are "required" to be in an office for a corporate job where we add little value to our surrounding environment in a typical day because we're in a) unnecessary meetings or b) buried behind a phone or computer screen. I can say personally that I have the most productive work sessions when I'm around other people actually - gasp - producing, or when I'm in an environment of my choice that stimulates creativity. I'm oddly productive at the library. But that's another story for another day.

#2) Knowledge between experts is better shared than kept as some holiest of holy secrets. Look. People who hire me know that I'm one of many people that can do what I do. I make no mistake about that. What people love about working with me is completely different for everyone. And THAT is what keeps them coming back, not the illusion that I harbor some secret holy grail of knowledge that has never before been seen on the face of the planet. Silly, silly. It's why Seth has no problem posting about other great marketing minds, or sharing links to other people's brilliance. Me either. Share and share alike, and we shall all be the better for it!

Communication is Key

Recession or no, don't make the mistake of thinking that an economic downturn means that you should put the brakes on everything you do that's considered "marketing".

Marketing is sometimes construed as a dirty word. So let's clean it up and consider the most basic of all marketing principles - communication.

Every business feels the symptoms of economic strife a little differently. In my neck of the words, for instance, clients are super focused on targeted, economic methods of communication. Which is a beautiful thing, because that's what we advocate anyway. But there are also those people who say "Amber, I'm halting all marketing spending right now." Yikes.

Especially for growing businesses and non profit organizations, there's a lot of noise in the market on a GOOD day. When it's a dog-eat-dog environment where every last customer or donor or volunteer is a gem (they should be anyway, but that's another post), I think the worst mistake you can make is to stop communicating.

Marketing, done well, is a dialogue. It's an ongoing communication with your clients and those you wish to be, and you need to be talking to be heard. In fact, when the frantic sales cycle is cautious and slowed, it can be an incredible time to spend developing those relationships with your customers and reminding them of how you're there to help them, serve them, provide them with a valuable product or service. Now is not the time for the hard sell - it's the time to have a conversation and be great at the most important part of all - listening.

And the bonus? Great dialogue with your customers doesn't have to be expensive. Pick up the phone. Launch a blog. Send out a handful of handwritten notes.

How can you spend a few minutes building relationships with your customers and clients so that when the sales cycle picks up pace, you'll be top of mind?