marketing to brand loyal customers

Are you a brand loyal customer?

This morning I stopped for coffee as I took my wife and daughter to the airport for a pre-dawn flight to Minneapolis. Brand loyal customers are big in the coffee business, right? Think Starbucks! My son, my brother and my brother-in-law are loyal to the Starbucks brand. That's their first choice for coffee. It's the coffee my brother-in-law even brews at his house.

But when it comes to me I'm not brand loyal as a coffee drinker.

My favorite coffee is brewed at our local donut shop and I don't know what brand they use. It costs me $ 1.35 for a large cup of coffee.

I do like McDonald's coffee more than Starbucks but I'm not loyal to the McDonald's brand. Coffee is about the only item I'll purchase at McDonald's.

When it comes to coffee, I shop for both taste and price but not the brand.

I'm not brand loyal when it comes to gasoline, either. I'll choose AM-PM over any of the top tier gasoline brands usually because of price and because I drive a 1996 Nissan Pathfinder that I have serviced regularly.

But I could become loyal to the Nissan brand of cars since I've heard so many people talk about them favorably and my Pathfinder is running smoothly.

So where am I brand loyal? It's hard to say. I'll need to think about where I am brand loyal. But thanks for asking!

So what does it take to create brand loyalty? It's a good subject for another post.

Marketing Tool: Your Bio Part 2

Here are tips from Gayl Murphy on using your personal story, or bio, to market your company, products, services or marketing knowledge for consultants. Gayl is a veteran of the Hollywood media scene interviewing people such as Jay Leno and George Clooney who shared additional tips in Marketing Tool: Your Bio Part 1.

She offers these specific tips focus on dealing with the media:

23 - Being in front of the media requires a level of PERFORMANCE, so give your interview your ENERGY.

24 - An interview isn’t a confession, so there's no need to reveal your deepest and darkest secrets to a complete stranger.

25 - An interview isn't a conversation either, but it is GIVE AND TAKE, so listen carefully to what's being asked.

26 - No chewing gum, drinking alcohol, or eating during an interview. It’s rude and will ruin the audio.

This doesn’t apply for the Cooking Channel or a Budweiser promotion.

27 - Make EYE CONTACT whenever you can. SMILE. Compliment a reporter when they ask you an insightful question.

28 - Say the reporter’s name when you can. People really like it when you say their name.

29 - Thank your interviewer for taking the time to cover YOUR story.

30 - Whatever your product; books, CDs, photos, films, cookies, clothing, jewelry, etc., I say bring a sample, or a press clipping along and ask if they would like to see it, try it, or have it.

This takes the guesswork out of what you’re selling and they get to enjoy your handiwork first hand.

31 - Check out your body language. What is it saying about you? Are your hands all over the place? Are you playing with your hair or the buttons on your clothing?

First impressions are everything. It’s important to look CONFIDENT and COMFORTABLE.

32 - Dress for success and DRESS THE PART! Whatever your part is. You’re the STAR! You get to decide how the world sees you.

33 - Don't be lazy with your language. Speak up and speak in complete sentences. Avoid phrases such as; YA KNOW, LIKE…UMM and KNOW WHAT I’M SAYIN’?

34 - Having a sense of humor is always a good thing - just don't go overboard. Sharing a joke is one thing, trying to be Jay Leno is another … don't go there.

35 - And most important, when all is said and done…what a reporter really wants is an insightful INNER-VIEW of you, and to turn in a great story and get paid.

Any questions you have about these 35-KILLER “INTERVIEW TACTICS” FOR SURVIVING THE MEDIA WITHOUT GETTING CLOBBERED! can be answered in the pages of Gayl Murphy's book, INTERVIEW TACTICS! HOW TO SURVIVE THE MEDIA WITHOUT GETTING CLOBBERED. (THE INSIDER'S GUIDE TO GIVING A KILLER INTERVIEW! http://www.InterviewTactics.com

Part 1 is available here.

Marketing Tool: Your Bio Part 1

Using your personal story or bio to market a company, service or products is a smart move.

Here's one reason:

It immediately sets you apart from the competition since no one has a story like your story.

Your story, and as I wrote in a post on March 18, your reputation for service, will do far more to generate positive word-of-mouth referrals than all the time spent on social networking sites or purchasing expensive media buys.

This post is part 1 of a lesson marketing your story or bio with Gayl Murphy. You can read Part 2 here.

Learn more about using your bio to market your company among the media with Gayl Murphy, owner of Interview Tactics! If you're sitting down with a reporter or pitching your bio or personal story Gayl passed along these tips to follow:

1 You’ve got to PITCH IT TO PROMOTE IT, so you can TELL IT TO SELL IT. If you can’t tell your own story, who can? And who will…and WHY would you want them to? Only YOU can tell YOUR story!

2 Be as honest and upfront as you can with the person that’s interviewing and engaging you.

3 Relax, enjoy and have a good time. Being interviewed is supposed to be FUN. Whatever the circumstances, you get to be the star of THE ME SHOW starring ME, or in this case…YOU!

4 Keep this Interview Tactics! Report close at hand in your MEDIA BAG and refer to it often, because you’ll need it. REMEMBER: It’s the RIGHT TOOL for the right time. Why? Because you can't control the environment you'll be delivering your message in, and it's not a reporter, or decision maker’s job to show you the ropes, or help you tell it to sell it!

5 When you’re telling your story to the media, or any gatekeeper, your JOB is to capture their attention and imagination in the shortest amount of time.

The best way to do that is by using COLOR AND DETAIL. A good story is both the SIZZLE AND THE STEAK.

To set your story up, paint a picture with your words, using color and detail - and drop the other person in.

I would also add to Gayl's tips that CEOs or Executive Directors of organizations often try to sanitize their story. But I believe that people don't mind when we come across as human beings who try their hardest but also end up making mistakes.
Part 2 of Marketing Tool: Your Bio is here.

Remember, your bio is what sets you apart from everyone else in your industry and even within your company. Marketing your bio is one of the most unique marketing tools available for your use.

eNewsletter Marketing Planning

eNewsletter Marketing Starts with Planning: Lesson #1

Planning is the essential first step in using an enewsletter for marketing just as it is in developing any form of marketing communication or plan.

In enewsletter marketing lesson #1, I’ll briefly set out how a plan can help a small business or a larger company create a successful email campaign.

A client who operates 26 apartment buildings in the greater Pasadena, California area, Barbera Properties, enjoys a low vacancy rate in any given month – less than 2% vacancies and often less than 1% vacancies for over 500 units.

He wanted to drive more traffic to his web site which I helped him achieve through re-writing his web pages, web articles and social media.

I recommended he send out a regular enewsletter.

First, determine your goal

.

I saw his overall goal was building community. He sees the tenants as partners in his operation and he wanted to also connect them with local businesses.

Because of this, I wrote the content in 3 parts: • quick intro from the company founder to the readers, • a spotlight on a local business with a discount,

• and a community-based activity that featured a non-profit organization.

There was also a brief interview running in the sidebar with a local insurance salesman.

The goal of your enewsletter determines the layout, the content, the images, and the call to action

.

Are you sending out factual announcements to customers – or are you trying to persuade them to do business with you – or forward the enewsletter?

I asked a photographer I know,

Samuel Whitworth from Whitworth Photography

, who had taken some custom shots around Pasadena to upload a few of the images into the enewsletter.

He used Photoshop to edit in a custom photo with a template image. This created a banner that was used as the header. We also used custom photos in the body of the enewsletter and in the sidebar.

We also had to determine how often to send out the enewsletter. This is not an exact science. Should it be once a month, once a week, or twice a month?

Again, what’s the purpose for sending it out? A typical landlord who has several dozen tenants could simply send out an announcement-style enewsletter once a month. But for my client, he was wanting to build community and even connect tenants who had their own home-based businesses get some exposure.

I knew more than a dozen businesses to highlight in addition the ones he and his staff knew as well. Once a week would be too often but I felt once a month would be too much lag time. We wanted each enewsletter to also have discounts offered to readers so there would be something of value to them.

We settled on twice a month.

The enewsletter is going to soon head out into inboxes, so we’ll be waiting for the response.

Planning your enewsletter doesn’t have to be an exhaustive process

but laying out a basic plan is essential to guide the development and filter through the opinions of decision-makers involved in the process.