My daughter just turned 2 years old and I’m reminded of that fact by two things.
First, she’s VERY good at holding up exactly the number of fingers that represent her age, prompted by everyone in the grocery line asking her the question.
Second, every time I have to change her diaper, I catch myself longing for the days when she was a newborn and I could clean her up quickly and easily with not so much as a peep coming from her.
Now, it’s like a World Wrestling Federation Pay-Per-View cage match.
Between dodging her kicks, pulling her back to the changing pad, and juggling baby wipes and diapers, it’s pretty much my biggest workout of the day.
But in the end, somehow, Phil “The Diaper Dragon” Lomboy always claims the title belt.
There’s a rule in psychology that “the one that is most flexible within a given system wins.”
Regardless of what kind of craziness my daughter throws at me during her diaper change, I have to adapt and respond appropriately.
I have to be more flexible in my approach to putting a clean diaper on her than her approach for keeping it off.
It’s a lot like you have to be with your prospects…
You have to be infinitely more flexible in your approach for getting them to say “YES” than their approach for telling you “NO” or ignoring your message completely!
It’s time to stretch.
You may have to do things differently. Heck, you may have to scrap everything you’ve known up to this point.
That’s okay…
There was a time when I never thought I’d be wrestling another human being to have them put on clean underwear.
This is an interview I did with local marketing expert Cary Duke where he shares his techniques for helping his customers get on the first page of Google.
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After listening to the interview you’ll want to also download his Google Places Fast Start Guide.
In a word, “No.”
Main Street has just as much opportunity and right as the next guy to create a phenomenon similar to the Old Spice video strategy, which has attracted over 122 million views.
Advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy produced an inarguably fresh (no pun intended), engaging, and fun campaign that hit viral proportions which outpaced even the most popular videos to date such as Susan Boyle’s performance of I Dreamed a Dream and Obama’s victory speech.
But before you go out to do some pushups, buy your own video camera, and strip down to a towel, you need to remember this point… it’s not an issue of being “cool.”
The real issue is about ROI – how much you put in vs. how much you get back.
Although initial reports showed Old Spice sales were actually DOWN, it now looks as if the campaign did actually increase sales. Good news for them? Maybe. After all, we don’t have access to Procter & Gamble’s books.
Furthermore, unlike P+G, small business simply doesn’t have the luxury of deep pockets to pay advertising agencies to create branding campaigns nor the time to wait it out to see if it actually works.
You probably need the sale NOW. For some, you needed it YESTERDAY!
Should you be innovative with your marketing? Maybe.
Can you use new mediums like video and social media? Sure.
But all that has to take a back seat to being MEASURABLE and PROFITABLE.
