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On my way to gym I decided to drop in to one of my favourite clothing boutiques. I was looking for a dress for an event. I needed help and watched two sales assistants ignore me and walk past.

I grabbed two dresses and helped myself to a dressing room. I came out twice to look in the only mirrors available, outside in the store, and still staff ignored me. In the meantime I noticed one of the girls helping a well-dressed lady who arrived after me.

The sales assistants had seemingly assumed I wasn’t their ideal client as I was in gym clothes, no make-up and had my hair pulled in a ponytail. I was, in fact, one of their VIP customers, a repeat buyer! I have never returned.

We don’t like to think of ourselves as judgmental, but, fact is, we do make assumptions on our first impressions. But should I, as a potential or existing customer, be worrying about how I look and act to impress you for my money and/or time?

The sales and marketing industry is about getting you to focus on targeting your message to your ideal customer. Assumptions are relied on within market research and demographics to decide on where you should invest your marketing budget.

But, let’s twist this all around. How about instead of judging your customers, you open your mind and assume the following:

1. I am your ideal customer
   Sometimes the prospects you least expect are the ones willing to pay for your product. I won’t always fit into your marketing statistical analysis.
2. I have marketing influence
   Whether I’m your ideal customer or not I will be marketing your business on how you treat me. Let’s face it; I deserve respect whether I purchase your product or not.
3. My time is more important than yours
   We’re all busy and, yes, running a business adds to the workload that few can appreciate. But, if you want me as a customer, you need to make me believe I have your full attention and time. I don’t want to feel like I am a burden or I should be grateful.
4. I don’t know your industry or product
   Don’t be arrogant, trying to look more intelligent than your competitors – they are not your customers! Remove your industry jargon and explain in simple, human terms how you can assist my needs. I don’t want to feel stupid or that I need to do homework before I purchase
5. I’m watching you
   I notice when you smile and when your yell. I notice how you treat others. In fact, notice everything you do. Always assume your customers are watching you because they probably are.

We, humans, are visual creatures and it can be hard to not judge a book by its cover. But, in business, wrongly assume I’m not your ideal customer and you may as well visualise me walking over to your competition.

The customer isn’t always right and you can, indeed, pick and choose who you do business with. But do so with your eyes wide open and not on first impressions.

This article first appeared in Aspire Magazine, April 2013

Last year, before I got ready to host my Mum for Mother’s Day, I did a boxing session. At the end of class, our trainer was asked, “Hope you sent your Mum some flowers”.

The trainer was dignified, smiled and said “Yes”. I checked on him later and invited him to my Mum’s dinner. I knew his Mum had died when he was four-years-old.

For me, Mother’s Day is one filled of mixed emotions. I love celebrating and thanking my Mum, but I am reminded that I am not one myself. I am quite philosophical about these things and I write this blog aware it’s personal and may provoke some readers’ emotions.

As a marketer, I need to stereotype.

In my analysis to find a target market, the ideal customer, I need to rely on statistics and demographics. But numbers aren’t human; and humans are definitely not a science. We come in all shapes and sizes and with raw emotions.

Marketing, when done at best, is about connecting with an audience. But, often what’s missed is the gorgeous rainbow of colours in between the black and white of your analysed target market group. And, for me at least, it’s important that all those colours are never forgotten in a marketing message.

Just because I’m a 41 year-old female doesn’t mean you should assume I’m a mother. And, no offence, does it have to be your business?

Mother’s Day and all the other “hallmark” days are a marketer’s dream.

They are symbolic days designed to leverage at the heartstrings of prospects to get a sale. But let’s have some sensitivity too. Let’s understand that not everyone lives charmed lives with full family in toe.

Let’s be smart when marketing, not lazy and cliche. You never know who you may make a connection with if you show some creativity and potentially redefine the colours in your marketplace.

So, when I saw a Facebook post from my favourite local skincare business “Spoil the Goddess in your life for Mother’s Day”. I commented: “I will, me!” They liked it.

Traditional marketing often conjures up images of people that haven’t moved with the times. But why do we not consider that some traditions are tried and tested rituals?

Now, I love how the internet and how social media has changed they way we communicate directly with our marketplace. I’m an advocate of social media and taking businesses online – in fact, I have used online engagement since the late 90s. But like most areas of business, marketing cannot be black and white, and if you ignore traditional marketing concepts, then you potentially lose a unique and personal connection opportunity within your marketplace.

The uniqueness of online engagement is dissipating. Ten years ago, receiving an email to wish customers a Merry Christmas had a “wow” factor. But I’d question if most of the recipients now feel it’s impersonal and a tad lazy. Our marketplace understands email templates and mail merge and, unfortunately, few businesses make the effort to be creative in these holiday messages.

On the flip side, receiving a hand written Christmas card can evoke an emotional connection. Yes, I know, this takes more time and is more expensive than an email, but don’t underestimate that your customers will appreciate the time you have taken to be “old fashioned”.

Obviously traditional marketing is more than direct mail. And to be clear, I always look for Return on Investment for clients’ marketing. I agree that much of traditional media is expensive for the small business owner.

But, communication should be built on emotion and make your customer feel special. Traditional marketing can be the perfect platform to create this connection with prospects and loyal customers.

Give me the joy of receiving something other than a bill in my post any day of the week! I surely can’t be alone in feeling this way?

This article first appeared in Australian Businesswomen’s Network’s “Her Business Blog“

When I meet owners who are discouraged at how to market their business, more often than not they have lost focus on why they decided to go it alone.

And here’s my confession: Only a few months into starting my business, I had lost my marketing message – me, a marketer!

It wasn’t that I had lost passion for why I started; I was simply overwhelmed in running a business that I forgot the reasons why I had taken the leap of faith.

Put simply, I had over-complicated my marketing message to be all the services I could be, rather than where my passions lay and why I started my business.

It wasn’t until I stepped back and focused on four key questions that I re-gained my marketing message’s clarity.

What drove me to start my own business?
What type of client did I enjoy working with most?
What aspects of my client work gave me most satisfaction?
What (about me) resonated with my clients?

During my internal, one-person focus group, I also focused on who I am and what’s important (to me) in how I conduct business.

It was then, when my marketing message was in-line with my authentic-self, ready for criticism and rejection, that everything clicked. Beyond having a clear pitch, I started to get a tribe barracking for my success and customers who wanted what I alone could provide.

Few of us have a unique product that has no competition, so, ultimately, you need to bring the real you to the marketplace.

Too often, as business owners, we over-complicate our marketing while our customers are looking for someone with a clear and authentic message.

I always tell clients that marketing your own business is hard and now I’ve had that real-life lesson. Marketing messages should be a fluid process, as you and your business will continue to evolve and grow.

But ultimately, the core reasons of why you started your business will hold the answers to your pitch. Keep it honest, simple and real.

This article first appeared in Australian Businesswomen’s Network, 6 April 2013

The Client Whisperer - The Aspire Magazine

I’m a natural born caregiver. Every personality test I’ve ever taken results in this very conclusion. And maybe it’s this innate ability to empathise with people that makes it so easy for me to understand and communicate “what customers want” from businesses.

For me, understanding client relationships isn’t rocket science. Essentially, it’s putting yourself in the shoes of your customer.  So I’m going to do just that and let you know the basics of what I want from you.

Let me know I can trust you

Any good relationship is built on trust. A business-customer relationship is no different. No matter how I found you, I need to feel confident approaching your business that there will be no judgment and you will alleviate my anxieties in buying your product/service.

Deliver on your promise

When I found you, I really didn’t care about your logo or your website’s fancy images. It was your words that resulted in my decision to contact you and buy. But, ultimately, it’s your actions – delivering your promises – that will affect my long-term clientele.

Ensure your service is consistent

The time you have spent building trust with me, delivering your promises, will count for nothing if it’s not consistent.  You must ensure everyone who represents your business is on the same page in terms of how you want me to feel.

Focus beyond Honeymoon period

So you’ve won me over with your great products and service. It may have taken a while to build my trust, or it may have been a quick romance; either way I’m in love and believe in you.  So, don’t forget to continue to care about me after you have “won” the sale and move all your efforts onto someone new.

Reward my loyalty

Do you know how I feel when I see you reducing your price or providing extra service to a new customer? It hurts!

Do you reward me for quantity of products/services I buy? Or remember our anniversary? A simple gesture will go a long way to keep my relationship with you in my heart and mind. And it needn’t be expensive. Sometimes just acknowledging me in your marketing will make me feel special (all too easy today with Social Media!).

Customers are today’s marketers

We used to be told that a happy customer will only tell one person about your business versus an unhappy customer will tell ten. With the arrival of social media, I am telling thousands of people how I feel about you. Whether it’s to strangers via an online review or my friends on Facebook, I now market your business.

What better marketing could you get than me, a loyal customer, with no incentive other than wanting other people to experience how you make me feel.  I would think my loyalty would be priceless, but is it to you?

If in doubt, think what you want as a customer

This article is by no means exhaustive or detailed, but it’s a starting checklist for any business owner.

If you find yourself questioning why your customers aren’t with you for the long haul, look inside your business and ask if you are treating them as you would want to be treated as a customer.

This exercise may be tough, but it’s your first step to building a loyal client base that will help lead your business to its long-term success.

This article first appeared in The Aspire Magazine, March 2013

Not only was this timely and creative Social Media marketing, it was fun! I tweeted my answer and, yay me, they tweeted the next day to say I’d won a gift cards.

Excitedly, I poured through their website for my online gift (for myself). Nervous about buying lingerie online, I was somewhat calmed by their free refund policy. I ordered Wednesday and by Friday it was delivered. The sizing was perfect, but they had a self-addressed label in the box if exchange needed.

I was thrilled with the experience.

Flip side (I know you saw this coming) I was searching online for a gift for my soon-to-be (and-now-is) 18-year-old brother. Being a music lover, influenced proudly by me in his formative years, I ordered a vintage, Nirvana t-shirt and begrudgingly paid for the $25 postage.

Twenty days later, I was still waiting on my brother’s gift – now too late to hand over on his actual birthday. Their site says to allow 4-8 business days for delivery. When I emailed customer service they made excuses and said to allow 15 days for delivery and it was “out of their control”. They couldn’t deliver on their promise, literally!

Does your business promise customers an experience you can’t guarantee? Ultimately, your promise is irrelevant if you can’t deliver on it and, even worse, trust with your marketplace is often lost – just like with any relationship.

In the case of the t-shirt, true, I may not have ordered the t-shirt knowing it would take more than 20 days to arrive.  Yes, they got a cheap sale but I will never return – and if you have read my blogs, you know I love returning as a brand advocate!

So, there’s the tale of the business that exceeded my expectations that I will recommend and buy from in the future with earned trust.  And there’s the tale of the business that couldn’t deliver on their promise and let me down on a gift.

Marketing is not rocket science. Are you 100% sure you and your team deliver on your brand’s promises? If not, change your promise and build trust with your prospects and customers with promises you can guarantee.

Most of you will know the story, Valentine’s Day was a marketing strategy by Hallmark cards to increase sales and, gee, what a success – most marketers’ dream of impacting not only a business’ profit-line so dramatically, but the imaginations of a marketplace.

However, even though I know I am being manipulated by a marketing strategy, I always dream of having that romantic Valentine’s Day when I can 14 February in my diary. And when I realise red roses are unlikely to appear miraculously at my door I quickly re-hate the marketing manipulation of the day! (Or should I say my allowance of the marketing strategy defining me.)

But this is where we, as a community, friends, family, tribe of customers, can (and now more often do) take ownership of Hallmark’s marketing strategy and forget the monetary value and focus on the message.

We can re-define the marketing pitch to not being solely exclusive to being a “couple” but as a a day of gratitude to everyone we love.

In fact, from a marketing strategy, this revised message would make Hallmark and other synergetic businesses even more money. Why have such a segmented, niche target market when there are others that what to feel included and join your tribe?

So I ask 4 questions:
1. What marketing strategies does your business have that could be revised to capture another target market?
2. How can you emotionally connect your marketing strategies so other target markets want to be part of your business’ tribe / community?
3. Can any of your marketing strategies be re-defined by your target market/s and negate your business’ core marketing pitch?
4. Will I get red roses? Well that I can answer: No, but it doesn’t matter because I received lots of love within my re-defined marketing pitch.

Why does being by a business advocate cut so deep? Because I truly love being one. Maybe it’s because I spent much of my formative career in the frontline of business where I was often in the line of fire as “shoot the messenger” and no matter how hard I tried or how far beyond my call of duties I went, I very rarely got any formal kudos.

But part of being a brand advocate is also selfish. I hope that if I shout from the rooftops that a business is amazing, then not only will I help start a tribe of followers and customers, but (their) industry will have to change long-term to keep up with a change of awesomeness. Therefore, I love to pay-it-forward to the people and businesses that are awesome… But, even this Leo-cliched loyal person has to abandon ship if Im not being treated well. Usually I leave after much effort of trying to ignore the mistreatment, but eventually I have to face the facts that my loyalty is not warranted.

So if you have too many unwanted clients, here’s my Top 8 Tips for businesses on How to lose a Loyal Brand Advocate:

1. Don’t deliver on your promises
I’m pretty nice, so having to ask for something promised within my payment for your service is ok, but three or four times and you’ll lose me.

2. Tell me I’m not your ideal client
No emphasis on the word “but” at the end of this sentence can ease my mind.

3. Don’t listen
I understand the client isn’t always right, but sometimes we do have valid points or just want to help.

4. Complain to me
Now, I’m happy to listen and lend a supportive ear to business owners, but you’ll lose me as your customer if you continually tell me your life is harder than mine.

5. Focus on the dollars
Your goal is and should be to make money and I am happy to pay extra for quality, but if you plan to change your pricing beyond a reasonable level without any increase in service consistency, I’m going to start second-guessing my loyalty.

6. Take me for granted
Don’t show me that you value other customers more than me – pick and choose who you more consciously deliver your overall brand promise to at your peril.

7. No reward or acknowledgement
Now this won’t necessarily have me leaving, but rewarding me for my level of customer loyalty and publicly acknowledging me with “thanks” goes a long way to helping me remain loyal.

8. Throw your goodwill back at me
If you decide to offer beyond-your-service, that’s gorgeous and I will be grateful, but there’s only so many times I can say thank you.

I’m sure the above tips will seem very obvious and comical to a savvy business owner, but it’s easy to slip into our human emotions, especially during tough business times.  I guess it’s a matter of working out the value of keeping your clients versus getting new or focusing on the “better” ones.

Onto the positives of brand advocates next time with some amazing businesses who truly know how to keep me shouting from the Social Media rooftops about their products. But in the meantime, I’d love to know your thoughts on my above tips and how a business has lost you as their customer.

I loved them, truly, and not only “would’ve done anything”, but I believe, as best I could, I “did” everything I could to help them with no expectation except goodwill. But as with many relationships, it is only through hindsight that you realise you are the only one valuing what there is.

And, tell me off, because we broke up mid-year! But they begged me to come back and promised things would be different… And you know the story, we go back to an “ex” even though we have started with someone lovely and new… But I wanted to believe in “us” and my brand advocacy that I trusted it would be better.

So here I am now, hurt for a second time, wanting to reflect and take something positive away from this experience – my “lesson” from being a loyal customer.

As indicated by my title, I wanted to write a Blog about “how to lose a loyal client” (read Part 2), but it’s too raw right now. And when you have written words telling me:   “…doesn’t give you any special right to just do what you want at the expense of our business” and “to walk away without even a thank you shows a weak character”, my thinking is just to want defend myself – human conditioning, for me at least.

So I will come back and teach you my marketing tips on how to lose loyal customers soon.

Do i know my lesson? Yes! Value is subjective and friendship and business do not often work. No matter what I say to these business owners, they will never value my contribution and goodwill in monetary terms. I have learnt the hard way to never devalue my service and contra-deal without clear boundaries that reflect my real world worth of services rendered.

A good lesson learnt, really, if JoElla Marketing is to be a success.

The school of hard knocks is fine, but hard when it gets personal. But I’m a tough cookie who’s been through much bigger issues than this over my 41 years. So I have dusted myself off and head back to the business who does want and value my clientele, even if there are a few battle scars to heal.

Read Part 2: How to Lose a Loyal Customer / Brand Advocate

It was an amazing personal achievement for me, one that has left me with many lessons to apply to both my personal and business lives. But reflecting on the day in hindsight has me captivated by the brand’s success and the lessons businesses can learn from the worldwide phenomena that is Tough Mudder.

1. Clear marketing objectives
The Tough Mudder “pledge” (for want of calling it a vision statement) is plastered everywhere: their website, social media, at online registration and and on the day – where we had to kneel on one knee, raise our right hand and repeat as a chorus before we started the race.

Did everyone abide by the pledge? Absolutely!

Lesson #1: Having a clear marketing message ensures that everyone, from your employees to your clients, are all on the same page regarding expectations. Putting your values in writing and repeating the message across all your media is key to your business’ marketing success.

2. Training & Preparation
While Tough Mudder has been designed to be accessible for most people to participate (unlike some of its competition), it still requires months of preparation in training to be able to complete 21kms intermixed with obstacles that require strength and agility.

What many forget (or don’t have patience to witness) is the preparation time can provide some of your most amazing “a-ha” moments that challenge your  thinking and beliefs.

Lesson #2: How can you  expect quick results from your marketing when so few things of substance in life can be achieved in a short timeframe? And let’s take that a step further: Have you spent time thinking and reflecting on business to write a marketing plan with an action plan of strategies?

3. Building a tribe
To tell people you’ve signed up and are training for Tough Mudder and then to become a Tough Mudder results in one of two responses: Admiration (from those who haven’t done it) or Acceptance (from those who have).  Either way, there is public acknowledgement of the tribe you have joined and what it takes to try and enter the club.

Lesson #3: How can you build a tribe mentality with your customers? What does your business do that can connect the marketplace in a common goal or achievement? Don’t overthink this, it may be as simple as lesson #1, your set of (differentiating) business values.

4. A reward you can’t buy
One of the proudest possessions I now own is an orange headband! And I’m truly not sure if I’d be more disappointed if I lost that or my new smartphone. What’s it worth? Probably a few cents, but it’s priceless to me as there is only one way you can own it, by crossing the Tough Mudder finishing line.

Lesson #4: Too often businesses believe that rewarding their customers cannot be cost effective. Put yourself into the shoes of your ideal customer and think what “reward”  would make “you” feel special. Often it’s not monetary, but acknowledgement.

5. Brand advocates
What every business wants and should endeavour to get is “brand advocates”. These are the clients that love your business and brand so much that they want to tell everyone about you. Needless to say, in this digital and social media age, this can equate to customers sharing your marketing messages for you, without any expectation in return.

Tough Mudder Inc have this sorted. Beyond “wear orange headband to work day” (more a verbal acknowledgement that it’s ok to brag to your peers for one day) they send you image badges to share on your social media walls, videos & photos to share, etc. The participants’ bragging rights are unashamed plugs for their business.

Lesson #5: So has this Tough Mudder shouted from the roof tops that she owns a cheap orange headband? Of course I have and proudly so. Hang on, what am I doing now…