Marketing is EVERYONE'S Job

Marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department.

-David Packard

 

Several years ago, I started my first day at a new temp job as a receptionist for a Japanese automotive company in Metro Detroit.  The learning curve was huge - my work experience at that point was limited to child care, restaurants, a flower shop, and another two week temp job.  This was my first "big girl" job, and I wanted to be great - even though I knew it was "temporary."  I had to learn who worked in what department and what paperwork and phone calls went where.  

 

But one thing was noticeably missing: a Marketing Department.

 

I brought this to my superior's attention, wondering out loud if the marketing was handled from the corporate office in Japan, when he said something that stuck with me: "There is no marketing department.  Marketing is everyone's job."

Marketing is everyone's job.

After nearly a year working there, that is what stuck with me.  It stuck with me when I left that job to take a job in a marketing department for an architecture firm.  It stuck with me when I changed my college major to marketing.  It stuck with me when I decided to start my own company and focused my business on marketing.  It sticks with me today as I coach start-up businesses or help businesses in crisis - marketing isn't just the job of a single department - it is everyone's job.

There has been a lot of coverage across the internet (including this blog) about the importance of having the right business values and mission statements.  One thing that seems to astound me is the lack of marketing goals company-wide in these statements.  When a company builds this idea into the basis of their company, everyone owns it.  When it's shown more than it is said, the company is successful.

In today's world, where buyers have made 60% of their decision prior to talking to a sales representative, businesses need to be more aware of how their company is perceived.  If a potential client finds out about your company from a file clerk, you want their experience to be positive enough that they consider your company.  When they Google you and come across the VP's LinkedIn page, you want them to feel the company.  Your Twitter postings should fit the values, mission, and marketing plan.  This idea is less about marketing to your customers, and more about building brand recognition through every employee.

How do we move forward?

Marketing departments are still necessary for developing and implementing the marketing plans for the success of the company.  Web, print, social media, trade shows, networking - all of these are still vital for a company to succeed, but the voice of the company, the culture, the persona recognition - these should be owned by everyone.

How do you incorporate marketing in your company?  Would you consider taking a holistic approach to marketing?

Be sure to leave your thoughts in the comment.

Nicole
The Restless Entrepreneur

Why aren't you holding yourself accountable for your success?

“A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.”
― Thomas Paine

Accountability.  No one wants to hold themselves accountable, but everyone else should be.  And you are the only one who can pave your way to success...or failure.

So why aren't you holding yourself accountable for your own success?

There are 4 fears that cause a lack of accountability:

Fear of failure -
Are you so afraid of failure that you cannot hold yourself responsible or liable for your own actions?  Do you lack trust or faith in yourself?  Fear of failure is a deep imbedded, nagging thought that can stop us before we even start a task.

Fear of success - 
Some of us are afraid of what would happen if we are successful.  Will we be able to keep up with family obligations?  How about a social life?  Will you be more scrutinized if you find success?  Fear of success is just as debilitating as fear of failure.

Fear of being thought of as a fraud -
Imposter's Syndrome impedes success.  The fear of being seen as not qualified enough by others, or not feeling like you know enough yourself can cause stagnancy.  Even when you have an MBA and 12 years experience, you can feel like you aren't enough of an 'expert.'

Fear of not being taken seriously -
Ideas and products die before they are even launched due to the fear that others won't understand or see value.  People are afraid to talk about their business plans or ideas, thinking that they'll be laughed at or ridiculed.

And all of these fears can be cured by one important resource: your business coach.

A business coach listens.  A business coach leads.  A business coach gets you from the current level, to the next, by teaching you to hold yourself accountable.

Clearing the 4 fears: failure, success, Imposter's Syndrome, or not being taken seriously, all happen with the right coach.  There will be a future post about finding a business coach and what other added benefits they add, but for now understand that before you start that next business, launch your next product, or decide to jump ship from a corporate life to an entrepreneurial one, check in with your coach.

Success is waiting - and it's not terrifying.  It's attainable.  Build your support network, and include a coach!

Nicole
The Restless Entrepreneur

P.S. Be sure to sign up for "Become a LinkedIn All-Star!"  The Google Hangout will be held on Wednesday, July 23rd at 1pm EST - and a lucky attendee will receive 1 hour of FREE entrepreneurial coaching!

Have a wonderful 4th of July!

Those who won our independence... valued liberty as an end and as a means. They believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty.

--Louis D. Brandeis 

 

Have a wonderful and safe Independence Day!  Remember what the day is about - liberty and freedom!

Nicole
The Restless Entrepreneur

Join me in a Google Hangout - Become a LinkedIn All-Star

Being an All-Star is everything.

-- Allen Iverson

Mark your calendar - you don't want to miss my first Google Hangout!

If you read the post about breaking up with social media, then you are probably like me and know that you can get more out of your social media - especially LinkedIn - and I want to help you reach "All-Star Status!"

Let's work together to grow your business, grow your connections, and grow your influence over your market using LinkedIn.

Be sure to join me on Wednesday, July 23rd, at 1pm EST on Google Plus for: "Become a LinkedIn All-Star!"



While you're at it, be sure to connect with me on Google+ so that you won't miss the other Google Hangouts I'll be having - all to benefit you and grow your business!

We should probably connect on LinkedIn also!

Here's another reason to attend - one attendee will receive a one-hour coaching call or private hangout for more tips and tricks specific to your business.

Hope to see you then!

Nicole
The Restless Entrepreneur

How to coexist with kids during summer break

“People who violate your boundaries are thieves. They steal time that doesn’t belong to them.”

― Elizabeth Grace Saunders

This summer, my SO and I decided to try something different: instead of shipping our son off to child care for the normal 2-3 days per week, we decided to keep him home and juggle him between both of our businesses.  We're both self-employed and have flexible schedules, so we figured that would be a piece of cake...and so far, so good.

This isn't a new concept - there are a TON of work-from-home parents who juggle their career with their kids' lives, and come out on the other end just fine.

I don't want you and your experience, be it just summer or be it year-round, to be "just fine."  I want to give you a few pointers, so that you can work efficiently and effectively and give your kids all of the mom or dad time they need.  It's true - you CAN coexist with your kids and have a successful career.

http://andreaalicia.net/working-from-home-is-not-for-me/

Here are my 8 tips for coexisting with your kids as a work-from-home parent:

1)  Understand that you may have fewer unproductive hours

Depending on the age of your child(ren), you may have to adjust your expectation of work that you can get done at home.  You may enjoy having more access to them and may want to work less.  You may have more interruptions, or may have to play referee too often.  Maybe you just don't have a lock, or a door to close at all.  Accepting that you might have to change your productivity for a couple months may keep you from unnecessarily blowing your top.

2) Adjust your schedule - and stick to it

For some of us, having fewer productive hours just won't cut it.  If that's the case, then you need to find time to work.  For example, I wake up at 5am.  My son doesn't wake up until 8am.  By adjusting my schedule in the morning, I found three uninterrupted hours to get work done (and that's more than most employees in an office)!  When my son wake up, we spend a solid hour and a half together before I have him do solo activities.  For the rest of the day, we block out "me" time and "us" time. If it's a "me" time and he wants my attention, we've worked out a note-writing system.  I don't feel interrupted, and he can communicate.  Win-win.

3) Use Parkinson's Law to your advantage

If you only have a half hour block of time, try to fit more than thirty minutes worth of work into it.  Sounds crazy, but it works.  You'll figure out how to work efficiently when you have less time than you need.  It's almost like cramming in college, but it is actually effective.

4) Plan your meals and make it easy on yourself

This is a topic that will come up again, but here's a pro tip: plan your meals.  Shop for those meals.  Prep your ingredients when you get home from the market (separate and process your meat and vegetables).  Develop an arsenal of crock-pot meals.  Freeze leftovers.  Try not to deviate from your plan unless it's a special occasion.  Another quick tip: keep a basket of snacks in a low cabinet and one in the fridge - allow the kids to pick their own snack when it's time for one.

5) Let them watch a movie or play a video game - and DON'T feel guilty

Here's a fact: as much as you love your kids and as much as they love you, they don't want to be around you 100% of the time.  I'm not saying you should let the TV babysit your kids while you work, but once in a while, when you need to get something done, it's allowed.  You shouldn't feel guilty that they are doing something they enjoy - and chances are you'll get another hour of uninterrupted time.

6) Schedule time for just the kids

I touched upon this on #2, but this is key: if you expect them to let you work, then make time for them.  Schedule it.  Stick to it.  We eat meals (no electronics welcome) together, do chores together, exercise together, and spend at least an hour outside every day.  We build in quality time, so that our separate time together doesn't feel as isolating.

7) Call in the reinforcements when you need to

Once in a while, especially when I know I have to have an in-person meeting, I call a babysitter.  If I'm working on a big project and need to devote a bigger block of time to it, I'll call them as well.  Without guilt.  It doesn't make you less of a parent to allow someone else to handle child care duties.  It's not cheating.  It's just business.

8) Give yourself a break

You're going to have a bad day.  You're going to get frustrated.  The kids are going to get frustrated.  You're going to need to recharge, so make sure that you spend quality time by yourself, with your SO, and with friends.  It can be fun and worthwhile to spend two solid summer months working-from-home with kids, but take time away from them too.

What are your favorite tips for working-from-home with kids?  What hasn't worked?

Nicole
The Restless Entrepreneur

Breaking up with social media

“Moving on is easy. It's staying moved on that's trickier.”
― Katerina Stoykova Klemer

Today, I decided to break up with social media.

Wait, that doesn't make sense.  I thrive on social media; I teach others about social media; I grow my business and others' businesses with social media.

But I need a break.  I need a break from cheap, meaningless connections.  I need a break from sub-par content and dialogue.  I need a break from mediocrity.

http://www.elsaelsa.com/astrology/2012/05/22/what-if-someone-breaks-up-with-you/

How often do you audit your connections?   

Do you scour through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, or any other social media sites and remove contacts that aren't worth your time?  Do you make mental notes about where your connections are on your radar?

Why not?

So the truth is, I'm not breaking up completely with social media; I'm breaking up with how I use it.  Fact:  I'm typically not a "friend" or "follow" collector.  Take Facebook for instance: today I decided it was time to clean through my friends.  I don't use Facebook for business often, so it's just my social circle, and it needed to be cleaned out.  I was at my highest amount ever, 308, and judiciously and without regret eliminated 127 people.  Not because I didn't think they were good people; not because they did something wrong; not even because they don't post funny things sometimes.  No, my reasoning was simple and precise - short of family members, I deleted people who didn't enrich my life.  I kept people who I would call if they were absent, or at the very least email by normal email.  I kept people who I interacted with.  People whose stories and pictures were meaningful.  People who I would miss if they no longer posted.

So how does this translate to business?  

If you're a Twitterer, what are you getting out of your news feed?  Are you clicking the links excitedly because you love the content you're receiving?  Or do you just follow everyone who follows you?  Are you bored with your content?  Are you tuned out?

The same goes for LinkedIn, Pinterest, and the others, as well as newsletters.  It's important to look at how you distribute your content: B2C through newsletters, Facebook, Twitter, Vine, Pinterest, or Instagram, YouTube; or B2B through newsletters, LinkedIn, Twitter, Vine, Pinterest., or YouTube, but it's also important to look at how you receive feedback and content relevant to you and your business.  If you're digging through hundreds of nonsensical posts hoping for that one golden piece of information that will push your business forward, then you're doing it wrong.

Take 5 minutes a couple times a week and weed out that bad information!  Unsubscribe to unnecessary newsletters; unfollow people on Twitter; break a broken connection on LinkedIn, and unfriend people who don't enrich your life on Facebook.  De-clutter your information pipeline, and you'll see that viable leads and information are all that's left.  And then, all that's left is the follow up and close.

How often do you weed through your social media and newsletters?

Nicole  
The Restless Entrepreneur

P.S. Learn more about making LinkedIn work for you in "Become a LinkedIn All-Star," a Google Hangout on July 28th!

What is your purpose in business

“Your purpose in life is to find your purpose and give your whole heart and soul to it”
― Gautama Buddha

You want to start a business.  You're working through your first draft of your business plan, when you're suddenly stumped: 

What is my mission statement?

What should you do?  You haven't given this much thought.  What do you want people to know about your business?  

What is your purpose?

http://www.stjamessantee.org/our-mission-partners.html

A mission statement should include your goals.  Your mission statement can, and should, be an elevator pitch for your company, or at the very least, the start of one.  Your mission statement should capture attention and make a person want to know more.  So how do you get that into a succinct phrase or paragraph?

Whenever I'm tasked with helping a company create their mission statement, I always look for inspiration.  I work to weave in a story of where the company started and where it's going.  I try different ideas out loud alone, and then in front of my closest and most beloved critics.  I come up with idea after idea, carefully crafting it piece by piece.  And more often, I look to the great mission statements and see what works, and to the worst to see what doesn't.

Let's look at Starbucks:

 "Our mission: to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time."  Do they hit their mark?  As a quick mission statement - kind of.  They give you the feeling of comfort and community, and I get that from their company.  Thankfully, they have an extended mission statement on their site that goes into the important parts that their original statement is lacking.  They let us know about the products, the service, the clients, the employees, their overall vision, and what they do for their shareholders.  Overall, their albeit short quip is fulfilling.  It makes me want to know more.  It makes me want to partake in their culture.

Let's try another, General Motors.  

"G.M. is a multinational corporation engaged in socially responsible operations, worldwide. It is dedicated to provide products and services of such quality that our customers will receive superior value while our employees and business partners will share in our success and our stock-holders will receive a sustained superior return on their investment."  As a mission statement, it fits in alignment with what should be there: products, quality, customers, employees, shareholders.  Everything is summed up quickly and informatively.  Does it invoke emotion?  Aside from their current issues, yes.  I want to know what "superior value" their quality products offer.  Personally, as an aside, I hope that they are able to overcome their current trials so that they can maintain this mission without fear of it being seen as tongue-in-cheek.

Inc Magazines "The 9 Worst Mission Statements of All Time" has a wonderful list of the bottom of the barrel mission statements, my favorite (or least favorite) being McDonald's "McDonald's brand mission is to be our customers' favorite place and way to eat and drink. Our worldwide operations are aligned around a global strategy called the Plan to Win, which center on an exceptional customer experience – People, Products, Place, Price and Promotion. We are committed to continuously improving our operations and enhancing our customers' experience."  Yes, they meet some of the qualifications for a good mission statement, but instead of being forward-thinking, they're fluffy.  Full of air.  It does not make me want to learn more; in fact, their "global strategy" sounds a bit lame and cheesy.

So what's the takeaway?  

First, don't just throw your first idea on your business plan and call it good.  Your mission statement needs to say something; something about the company, where it's going, what it's offering and to whom, how it's offering those services or product, and what you're offering your community.  Just remember: who, what, when, where, why, and how.  Second, involve people in on the planning of the mission statement.  Work out a few ideas, say them out loud, see if you can spin an elevator pitch from it.  Work the top risers with a team of people who understand your business.  Shine it up like a new penny.  And third, make sure you're hitting your mark.  You get to pick what journey your mission statement takes people.  Make sure it's a journey worth taking.


Nicole
The Restless Entrepreneur