Marketing High or Low? USPS Advertises Paper Receipts

I was on the elliptical this morning with my ear buds in doing my best to make up for the bowl of queso I took down at Maudie's on 360 last night when one of the most absurd and fascinating commercials came on the TV in front of me.

Did you know the US Postal Service is officially advertising the mailing of paper receipts? I saw it! It's on TV, I swear!

Elliptical Reactions

My first thought was, Wow, that's a well done commercial. It was - it was pretty and the message made complete sense to me as both a small business owner and consumer. Remembering my recent experience with my Facebook account being hacked, I thought, You're right, USPS. My fridge door has never been hacked. It's much safer than my inbox. I should mail all my clients receipts.

My second thought was, Are you kidding me? Advertising the act of mailing stuff?

Evolve or Die, USPS

If I took a stand for my clients and the security of their private information by mailing their invoices and receipts, respectfully, I would still have to explain to them why I was spending so much on postage and making them wait by the mailbox three days after their service was completed instead of taking a peek at their smartphone on the way out of my office door.

Our brains don't speak slow anymore. Snail mail is dead. I am so sorry, but you missed the mark. Evolve your or kill your business.

Marketing High or Low?

I know the United States Postal Service has had a tough go of it recently, which probably really started with the advent of the fax machines and was certainly further pummeled by the internet and email. The recent buzz was that the organization was running out of money and may cut back on Saturday postal services. Poor USPS. So I understand what it is trying to do - reviving an old product and all. And from a professional standpoint, I also think that "mail is safer" is a pretty creative and viable approach to promoting its product.

But I also feel sad for marketing. From the Black Friday wars to the Panda scramble - what is next in marketing? Clearly, marketing snail mail to the busy small business owner is the answer.

What do you think?

Productivity and Broken Window Syndrome

Today, I am victorious. Today, the company I work for is re-painting our sales offices - the place where my sales team meets with prospects and converts them into students. It has taken me, the Sales and Marketing Director, months of management-prodding to be triumphant. Why all this ridiculous effort on my part and resultant excitement? I believe that the bland, dirty, pock-marked walls affect the people within those walls - my sales staff and their would-be sales, alike. I believe in the power of broken windows.

Broken Window Syndrome
Broken Windows: The Police and Neighborhood Safety by James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling was first published in Atlantic Monthly in March of 1982. Most recently, Malcom Gladwell referenced it in his bestselling book about epidemics, The Tipping Point. The Broken Window theory states that signs of physical property decay - including small things like litter and broken windows to the more visible like abandoned vehicles - leads to deterioration on a grander scale, resulting in negative behavioral shifts of the people living and working.

For example, Wilson and Kelling talk about cleaning up entire neighborhoods with certain enforceable city ordinances like having an excessive number of dogs and cats, parking in the front yard or running a business from home. Gladwell tells the story of how New York City reduced its crime rate by cleaning up graffiti on rail cars and and essentially re-reinstating respect for NYC's rail cars and system.

To over simplify the hypothesis, the lack of caring for and maintenance of one's surroundings rapidly evolves into a lack of caring within that person. It is also important to note that the emphasis of the theory is based on small things being capable of rapidly having big impacts on big things.

Product and Product Presentation
What does this mean for businesses? I'll answer that question with more questions.

Who wants to hand a big check over to a nice and very competent, but shabbily surrounded sales person in a dark office with pock-marked walls? Not my clients. Do those walls inspire - do the surroundings in general - inspire a sales person's confidence and pride in his or her company? Does that salesperson really believe their product is worth the big check? Not my sales people - not really.

Broken Window theory also goes beyond brick-and-mortar applications. As a marketer whose work is Internet-heavy, valuable, user-friendly content and design are critical to me. In What Does your Brochure Really Say About You? by SuccessfulMassageTherapist.org, Irene Diamond says massage therapists should make first impression look like a $100 massage will be worth the money with heavy card stock and professionally printed promotions materials as opposed to home-printer-produced flyers. Compare how Tony and Guy's hair stylists dress code to the Super Cuts'. It's only clothes and makeup and hair, but that's what clients pay for, right, style? I have been to both places and gotten good cuts at both, but going to Tony and Guy is a treat.

The bottom line is leads, productivity and sales. More questions: If the massage therapist's print materials were nicer, would he or she get more leads? If the room in which the salesperson made sales was more elegant, cleaner, more striking, would that salesperson be more confident when make a sale? Would he or she stand differently, use different words? Would the conversion rate be better? Would we sell more? Would the whole experience be more enjoyable if the first impression was just a little bit nicer? I'll let you know.

So when presenting your business to a client for the first time, whether it be with a brochure a user-friendly web page, the front of your building or the inside of your sales team's office, look for a broken window. If you find one, patch it up before it brings down the whole neighborhood.

Big Church: Purple Cow

Great Hills Baptist Church on Jollyville Road in Austin has one of the greatest Purple Cows I've ever seen a church produce.

According to Seth Godin, author of the Purple Cow, and many other business marketing books, the Purple Cow is the prize in the cereal box - it is the little extra something you weren't necessarily expecting when you purchase a given product. Great Hills Baptist Church's Purple Cow is it's playgrounds - for both child and adult.

For Calves and Cows

When you walk into the main entrance of GHBC, you are greeted by Noah's ark and Noah himself. Noah's ark is a nine-plus-foot plastic boat that look likes it sailed into church from one of Disneyland's adventure rides. Inside - because it is hollow and even adults can easily walk right into it, which is important to note - is a giant, lit up fish tank.

My kids say "hi" to Noah and the fish every time we go in and out of GHBC.

GHBC's child check-in area looks like a ticket booth from Disneyland - complete with pagers for each parent and photo identification. Behind the booth, right at the entrances is a biblically-proportioned, Noah-theme indoor playground behind glass. The playground design is so fantastical - a full size boat with ramps, slide and giant, plastic animals - that even adults stand against the glass, peering in on the playground in awe.

GHBC also boasts outdoor playgrounds, a tall tube slide decorated like a rocket that goes down between the escalators, giant fish tanks everywhere and a performing arts center including stringed instrument lessons and fine arts camps.

The adults enjoy a coffee bar - not to be confused with a pot of coffee on a snack table - before and after each service, a full-fledged library, numerous member service stations, a cafe that looks more like a food court and more. As is done in many churches, everyone is greeted at the door, but GHBC also prints and provides glossy, content-rich sermon outlines and note taking materials in the backs of the pews. The staff makes regular announcements via a giant movie screen at the end of each service, which really works for attention-getting.

With all these perks and novelties, what better way is there to convince a congregation that giving up a Sunday morning can be duplicitously fun and soul-healing? With everything religion competes against these days, even a good church needs a little marketing now and then to sell the word of God.

When I leave, I feel like I've walked out of the Starbucks of churches or even better, God's Theme Park. And I want to go back. Congratulations on your Purple Cow, GHBC.

Advice from Two Marketing LMTs: Build your Business in a Recession

By Holly Berry, Admissions Director and newly licensed massage therapist and Jennifer Shaw, Marketing and Sales Director and LMT

While various claims about the state of the massage industry have been made in the past several months, there is no doubt that the world economy is in recession.

Massage Income: TLC Instructor Cindy Anderson has a private practice and provides massage at a local resort in addition to teaching.

For new, part-time or poorly established massage therapists, a recession means there is hard work ahead - and not hard work that can be done with the hands and a massage table. The hard work in store for therapists who want to survive during a recession is business, namely marketing.

Jennifer:

"Though most massage therapists are self-employed, they are often not business-minded people. During a recession, when everyone is thinking about spending less, the burden of proof falls to the LMT. LMTs have to answer the question: why do I need to spend money on a massage? They also have to convince people, to make them aware, that they need to be thinking about massage to begin with. Marketing is critical at this point, and it is not something you can do on a massage table. It's business."

Holly:

"As someone who worked in sales and marketing for over four years before becoming a massage therapist, there are certain practices that I think should be second-nature, but maybe don't come naturally to everyone."

Holly's Top Five

1. Always, always, always have business cards. I don't care if you are taking the kids to the pool, you find a water-proof case and BRING THOSE CARDS.
   


2. Yes, you do need a website. Even if you set up a simple landing page that lists your contact information, hours, and the services you provide. If I can't find you on the internet, you don't exist to me.
   


3. Network! You are a business owner, which means you can gain value (and customers!) by speaking to other business owners. There are a million-and-one opportunities for this. The Outlaw List and Holly's Hot Happenings are two good Austin resources for upcoming events.
   


4. Ask for referrals (and you better already have a referral program!), ask for the next appointment, ask them to post a review of your business, ask how you can improve your services (preferably anonymously), and ask for business when you meet someone new.
   


5. Get personal. Write hand-written thank-you notes, birthday cards, session reminders. Take detailed session notes that show you're paying attention. Take the time to write out a recipe or teach them a self-care exercise or add that extra touch that shows you care.

Jennifer:

"Whether you are just starting out or have been working in the massage industry for a while, consider this. The recession will end. The economy will revive. This will pass, as they say.

Massage therapists need to be careful that they do not pay later for the decisions they make now. For example, taking a part-time administrative job will not do anything for building a client base. Adding a regular chair massage gig or picking up a part-time massage job at a gym are better ways to build clientele and increase income at the same time."

If you are interested in meeting new people and learning the basics of networking, join Lauterstein-Conway for its first Find Your Massage Therapist Networking Event, Friday, June 12th from 6:30-9 p.m.

Chris Brogan's Marketing Secret: Be Helpful

In Extreme Blog and Twitter Popularity Tips from Chris Brogan, an interview of one of the world's top bloggers and most popular Twitter users by also-hugely-popular David Meerman Scott, Chris Brogan reveals that being popular is a result of being helpful.



The most important thing I gathered from this interview - which seems so common sense that I bet it is often neglected - is that while it is easier and less time-consuming for marketers to write the lofty blog articles that disseminate knowledge with a minimal effort, being involved in the conversation is the most effective way become popular. And if your goal is to, however altruistically, draw attention to your product, there is no better way to go than to boost your brand than giving it a helpful personality - especially yours.

Who are you helping today? My personal goal is to search out three wellness-industry Tweeters and say, "Hello. My name is Jen. I'm a wanna-be helpful LMT and marketing aficionado. Maybe I can help!"

Twitter Wars: Larry King/CNN vs. Ashton Kutcher