When I see a Holstein cow (the black and white kind), I think of chicken! That’s because of the ingenious branding and marketing efforts of Chick-fil-A. They’ve created a truly remarkable product, but the product is only the beginning of the story. Chick-fil-A has created a remarkable experience!

With the recent launch of their newest product, the spicy chicken sandwich, Chick-fil-A rolled out the red carpet for their loyal fans and followers. They don’t just sell chicken sandwiches to customers, they serve them “with pleasure” to what is rapidly becoming a brand-based family.

I sampled the spicy chicken sandwich way back in February. They were selling them in southern California as a test market and I was there for a conference. Upon returning to northwest Arkansas, I asked our local franchise operator about it and he bubbled with excitement as he touted the coming debut of the new menu item. It’s truly delicious, but it was Chick-fil-A’s efforts that caught my attention.

First, the Mass Marketing

Again… cows, selling chicken. It works.

The Relationship Marketing

Instead of calling this a “social media campaign” (because you will generally think in terms of tools like Twitter and Facebook), I’d term it a relationship campaign. Chick-fil-A was able to spread buzz about the upcoming product launch with some creative methods. Dan Cathy, CEO, wrote about it on his blog…

We actually invited people to our restaurants.

We helped them make reservations for their free Spicy Chicken Sandwich. We gave them white glove service in a completely unexpected way. We reminded them that whether we’re rolling out new recipes or opening new stores, the lifeblood of Chick-fil-A are the fans. And the fans deserve special treatment.

Reservations took more work than coupons. They cost more time and were more complicated than doing a mass marketing coupon campaign. But for us, the chance to have friends over for a celebration, the opportunity to have people feel waited on and important, was simply too important to pass up.

source: DanCathy.com

So from that short blip, notice the huge lessons in relationship marketing…

1. First, make a great product. (Otherwise, don’t bother.)
2. Get your people excited about it.
3. Work hard to get attention – your product is worth it, right?
4. Treat “customers” like family. Reward fans.
5. Serve. Meet needs. Don’t just hope for sales.

Chick-fil-A seems to nail every kind of media and every kind of marketing right on target every time. And it makes sense – they nailed the chicken sandwich pretty well!

I think one of my favorite things to do is find marketing failures and point them out. I just got a call from Office Depot. They’ve paid someone to call me and try to get me to order paper.

“But we like to visit the store…” is my reply.

And the telemarketer’s answer back? “Even if it costs you more money?”

Yep. I’m a doofus. Not only do you make me feel dumb for visiting your store, you insinuate that going to your store is expensive. Why not avoid human interaction and let us ship it out to you? Then you won’t feel so stupid for shopping with us…

Here’s the bigger issue though – don’t just be good with a phone. Your callers should promote your stores, which should promote your callers. Be all around good.

I received an email newsletter that included a link to a great article about how Perry Noble prepares sermons. Excellent content – the kind most Pastors love to consume.

I stopped reading after only one third of the article, not because it wasn’t good, but because of article pagination. Just look…

I immediately thought, “I should have known.” This particular website is locked into some outdated marketing principles that say “offer good content, but smatter it with monetization.” Let me tell you why paginating your articles is, in my opinion, bad marketing mojo…

1. It stinks from a usability standpoint. If I click the page numbers out of order, my browser’s back and forward buttons now create an illogical puzzle, and why should I have to click a link to read more twice during a single article?
2. It messes with the sharable nature of the content. If I’m on page three and tweet the current url, it’s a different url than the article’s actual primary url.
3. It costs more server load. Yes, the pages can be cached, but some elements will still load on every click. Thankfully, I have broadband.
4. The two-fold purpose is obvious: 1.) get three pageviews instead of one, thereby decreasing bounce rates and increasing the marketability of advertising spots, and 2.) make me look at more ads (which are wallpapered all over this site).

So the excuse I hear so often is that you get more content above the fold with pagination. I would argue that I still have to scroll some and scrolling really isn’t as much of a problem as loading another page. The other excuse is that it breaks content into more readable chunks. Baloney.

The bottom line is that modern content consumers are more savvy than ever before in their understanding of how websites work. It doesn’t take much more than common sense for me to realize I’m just a marketing target and you’re dying to get me to see more ads, click more ads, and sell more ads for your business.

I’m not against monetizing content. I monetize content myself and also work hard to accomplish that goal for clients. But please, please realize that your bad marketing mojo with it’s immediate “click” payoff really just turns me into an untrusting skeptic. It really seems to me that developing untrusting skeptics is the opposite of good marketing. I’m a brand loyalist but I’m only loyal to brands I trust.

Watch your marketing mojo!

Remember the good old days when we were talking about the web ushering in the “age of information?” We even called it the “information superhighway.” Now, it’s becoming much more of a social structure all its own, but the information certainly has not decreased. There’s still a ton of it! A century ago, you could barely keep up because of a lack of information sources. Now we have a hard time keeping up because of a plethora of them. So how do you get my attention in the midst of it all? Inspire me!

That’s right – inspire me. Don’t just tell me something, tell it well. Think about how this applies to marketing – don’t just tell the public you’re in business, entice them to come. Don’t just have worship services, get out and touch lives. Don’t just blog about the latest news – bring a fresh perspective.

One question organizations of every type need to be asking is, how do we become distinctively inspiring against the backdrop of information overload? How do we stand out? I’ve read a couple of good quotes lately about this and one said simply “differentiate or die.” I like that.

This is why design matters. It’s why eye contact means something. It’s the reason shared experiences create such a strong bond. Wow me. Give me a reason to buy, subscribe, or visit. We’ve heard the old “show me the money” line, but how about “show me the value.” And value is evidenced only by something inspirational!

Here’s a quick tip – be human. One thing I’ve learned from Twitter is that people follow people and they “unfollow” spam. In fact, spam is detested in the twittersphere about as badly as it is in the email world. When advising companies about the use of Twitter, I always recommend letting one of the heads of the company tweet personally rather than just giving “company news.” This allows you to offer something back to the community rather than just be a taker.

This is a pretty important lesson social media has to teach medium and large companies – be a face, be a voice, and talk back. What do Chris Brogan, Guy Kawasaki, and Darren Rowse all have in common? They all love twitter and converse with their “followers.” This is also true of Karl Rove and Arnold Schwarzenegger. It’s even a tiny part of why Barack Obama won the hearts of the tech generation.

This post isn’t really all about Twitter (that post is coming next week). Instead, it’s a message about business, ministry, marketing, and people. People follow people. They don’t follow “company news,” “latest deals,” or press releases about new products. So how do you become human to your potential “followers” in today’s economy?

• Contribute – don’t be a taker.
• Have a face, not just a logo.
• Have a real name, like Bob, Tom, or Julio, not just “Gargantuan Enterprises, LLC.”
• Admit mistakes, answer criticism (sometimes), and be imperfect.
• Be a friend in the same way you’re a friend to your friends, if you really want new friends.
• Be careful about anything “automated” or “mass.” Think “personal response.”
• Use smileys. :-) and ;-) can make a somewhat argumentative statement more palatable. :-)

And the biggest lesson of all? Love people or get a job at a zoo. Here’s more about me. Want me to know about you and your message? Introduce yourself in the comments below – I promise to personally respond!

Truth doesn’t change, but how truth is communicated changes and fluctuates with culture. Many organizations no longer communicate with the surrounding culture not because their message is outdated, but because their communication is out of style and out of sync. But the goal of marketing, sales, evangelism, etc. is still to persuade people to listen, to tell a story that compels people to take notice. What style works best largely depends on the age and the culture.

Attraction – Wait for People to Come

Attraction happens as we make something look good and throw it out so people will notice. Mass communication, mass/direct mail marketing, commercials and sales flyers are all attractional in approach. We saturate a community and expose our presence in an aesthetically pleasing way to draw people’s attention. Attraction is probably an element of every form of communication, but used alone, it depends on several factors. Your packaging of the message has to be attractive, unique, accessible, and it must spoon feed the audience with clear instructions.

Confrontation – Compel… Even Coerce Them

Used less but occasionally necessary, confrontation is putting your message in the faces of the audience in a bold and confronting manner. Our present culture is leaning more and more away from any receptivity to this style of communicating. The door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman was confrontational and we’ve started locking our doors more often.

Integration & Infiltration – Be One of Them

This works! Guy Kawasaki recently said he’d rather give up his cell phone for a week than Twitter. Why? Because Twitter represents the possibility of integrating a message into the everyday life of millions of users in a free system. The risk is, they’ll do with it what they will! But at least we’ll know if our message is acceptable or not.

How do you communicate your message by infiltration? It’s simple, really (almost too simple for those highly trained in the art of marketing)…

• Be honest and real. Authenticity counts.
• Don’t sell, don’t invite, just share.
• Be yourself, be a human being.
• Always have integrity.
• Connect. Respond. Answer. Be available no matter how big you think you are.
• Engage in the conversation, even if it’s about adopting furbies!

I see sites popping up all the time that offer logos for $99 or so, and they all promise to deliver a “brand.” They don’t know your company, they don’t understand your vision, but they are great with vector art. Their popularity reflects a terrible misunderstanding about branding and it is that a logo is not a brand and a brand is not a logo.

What is a brand? It’s a story. It compels people to listen and respond. Why is Target able to target a different shopper than Wal-Mart? Why do you keep buying the same potato chips, t-shirts, and deodorant? Because you’re familiar with the story of the product. Don’t misunderstand. You probably have no clue who runs the company or how large it is – and that’s not the story I’m talking about anyways. Here’s the scoop on the story…

• Target sells nicer stuff in a nicer way.
• Lay’s potato chips are better than the generic ones.
• Kids’ cereals are chock-full of vitamins.
• The latest exercise tape will give you tons of energy.
• Nike thinks you’re a great athlete.

Are these true? We have no idea, but we often believe the story, so we listen and we buy. If you want a logo for $99 you’re sure to find a company that will churn one out for you, but don’t believe for a second that they are offering you a “brand.” What’s your story? Are you telling it well? The only way to answer that is to find out whether people believe it or not.

Education is great – I recommend it. Money is helpful, especially if you want to start anything. Insight grants an edge. Experience is probably better than all three, but passion tops the list of most valuable commodities! Passion changes the game completely.

Tell me why the “moral majority” sort of failed to effect permanent change in politics but the gay rights movement, much smaller, has seemingly succeeded at flipping culture’s viewpoints? Passion. How in the world did Michael Phelps break so many world records? Passion. And how are businesses growing in the midst of an economic downturn? You got it, passion!

I help companies with their public identity and marketing. I design blogs for bloggers and I optimize sites for search engines. I work on email campaigns and try to increase ROI in advertising expenditures. But what I really love is when I know a client has passion! Why? Because success is more likely, which makes my job much easier.

Passion is the world’s most marketable commodity, and the most essential for success. It keeps us going. Don’t ever enter a business just for the money. Don’t try to run an organization you don’t care about. Don’t lead people you don’t love, and don’t leave home without passion.

So if you could do anything today with a guarantee of success, what would it be? Now, go!

I just finished reading a great article on GetEntrepreneurial.com written by Terri Zwierynski about marketing yourself honestly. She asserts that putting lipstick on a pig doesn’t necessarily help as much as honesty and self-disclosure, and I must surely agree.

When I started eGrace Creative, I used the word “we” a lot, as in, “we” offer web design services. Now, I offer my services. I’m also honest with people that web design and marketing aren’t the real priorities of my life. My faith, family, and ministry come before any creative design work. I think this is an important marketing principle. You can probably generate more sales by being a little dishonest in an attempt to build credibility. But in the end, you actually hurt your integrity with others. I think this is why some of the world’s greatest salespeople aren’t very well-liked – they are too good at being salespeople and not really that great at just being people.

As you develop the marketing of your business, you also have to consider that every business has a human side. Your personality will drive your business, especially if you are the owner or manager – people will follow you and fit the mold you cast, so it’s important to work on being the best you that you can possibly be. After all, God only made one of you!

Our church is located on a major highway in Bentonville, Arkansas, the home of Wal-Mart. About 250 people attend a couple of services in a building that seats less than 200. Imagine if we had a tiny little 2′ x 3′ church sign on cardboard, or imagine if we had a Vegas-style blinking billboard. Instead, we have a church sign that proportionally matches our congregation. Why? We want to be honest and let people know when they turn in what kind of church they are attending.

When you over-market yourself, you’ll disappoint people. On the other hand, if you lay the false humility on too thick, you won’t inspire confidence in clients. So be yourself, but be positive. Think bigger, but be realistic and let people see the human behind the business.

The internet is all abuzz with fervent opinions about the “death of blogging” article in last month’s Wired magazine. Whether you feel blogging is alive and well or yesterday’s news, the Republican party is taking notice! John over at Human 3rror has written a pretty cool blog post about the different approaches of Democrats and Republicans to the use of the internet in political campaigns.

Everybody can see that social networking made an enormous difference in the outcome of this election, and every business, church, marketer, or potential blogger must sit up and take notice. What I learned is that you almost can’t NOT have a blog and survive it today’s economy.

Seth’s blog today mentions something that I try to articulate to clients all the time – there are web subcultures and you can’t sell to one if your site fits in another. I recently saw the site of a web design agency. The front page promoted them as a highly professional firm who wished to work only with highly professional people. It stated this on a little sign held up by a cartoonish guy! Clients choose service agencies that seem to match their own personality to at least some degree. So watch your site’s subculture.

• If you’re selling to gamers, go dark and scary.
• If you’re selling to a tech business, go metal.
• If you’re selling to an art museum, be artsy.
• If you’re selling to business firms, keep it soft.
• Personal blog? Be highly expressive and personal.

You get the picture. Think with the brain of your ideal client. Would you hire you based on your site’s design?

In my last article, I said that being a small business is not a weakness, it’s a weapon. Actually Seth Godin said it first, but you hopefully get the point. Well, my point was proven yesterday. I dropped my laptop a couple of weeks ago and my entire life flashed before my eyes along with the instant thought… “why haven’t I backed up in the last six months???” So I had to fix the situation, and in doing so, I experienced a scenario in which big business has a weakness.

I contacted the company that produced my computer (to remain nameless for now…) and ordered what I thought was the right part, but it was wrong. I needed a casing for my LCD, I got an LCD. So yesterday I called to make a shipping exchange and spent exactly 37 minutes and 1 second on the phone (I’m not crazy, I just have a timer). I was routed from sales to service, from personal business to business business. I was helped with my return by one individual, then routed to an entirely different company to order the new part, which is apparently not produced by the company that sold me my laptop.

I’m sure everything will turn out fine in the end – I’ll have a new hinge on my monitor and I’ll be good to go, but imagine if I’d called Bob at Bob’s Computer Repair and had spoken with a human being immediately who got me the right part the first time and offered to install it within a day or two. Small business can be big!

I appreciate reading the blog of Seth Godin (along with half the world, apparently). Today, he blogged about the fact that “small is a weapon, not an excuse” and spoke of the power of the web to level the playing field between small and large businesses. I couldn’t agree more.

I serve as the Pastor of a church, which I consider small (we average about 200 people in our Sunday morning service). I know “small” is relative in almost any field, but in this day of megachurches, we’re small. But I’m also a firm believer that small churches and ministries can sometimes do things that larger ones can’t. Sometimes it’s red tape, other times its intimacy, but there are often huge advantages to being small.

Don’t get me wrong, many churches are being unfaithful to the spread of the gospel because they celebrate smallness in all the wrong ways – they’ve become isolated from culture, are dying, and are oblivious to it because they keep celebrating the wrong kind of smallness. Nonetheless, smallness can still have its advantages.

Seth points out that your small business can have a better web site, blog, newsletter, customer service, etc. than many larger businesses. This is true. There’s a reason why Get Human is such a popular place – people hate automated answering systems and maze-like navigational menus when they encounter a customer service issue. They just want a face, a voice, a reassurance that they matter – something that large businesses struggle to capture.

So how do you do business better when your small? It’s a comprehensive subject, so I’ll just focus a few thoughts on how your web site can help you beat out the bigger competition…

1. You can have a nicely designed site. Okay, so can the big guys, but many don’t. While their developers have to account for a thousand unique issues related to the size of their organization, you can focus on a simple site with a killer look!

2. You can respond personally to pleas for help. Your site can feature a contact form to which you pesonally respond. I’m not a fan of auto responders because no matter how wisely they are crafted, they always seem… auto? Nobody wants to be answered by a computer.

3. You can develop a relationship with your clients. This is the age of social networking, not just for individuals, but for businesses too. The idea of customer loyalty was beginning to die a slow death in this supercenter age, but it’s returning as people follow the service and goods providers they love best online.

4. You can easily communicate about what’s happening behind the scenes. I always recommend that every organization with a web site post company news of some kind, even if it’s “Kate got a new desk…” Why? Because nobody likes to do business with invisible people, so open the blinds online, let folks know that you’re human.

5. You can do it all fairly inexpensively. Some of you can do all of this yourself for nearly free, but even if you hire a professional web developer, rent a server, and do some online marketing, you’re investing a few thousand dollars that will pay for itself in a relatively short time period. The internet offers some of today’s greatest advertising opportunities and this will only increase as more people in more areas get better access to the online world.

So I agree with Seth, small is not an excuse, it can actually be a weapon. Fire away!

I opened a package of store brand cookies the other day and that’s what was written on the package – “Made With Real Chocolate Chips!” I reflected on the crazy thinking behind this marketing plan for a long time. I finally decided this store brand would never be anything more than a store brand because of this approach.

You see, I assumed when I bought the package of cookies that they were made with real chocolate chips. In fact, I’d only expect a bold notification if they were made with anything else. I even wonder what else you could use to make chocolate chip cookies?? So why do I conclude that this is such poor marketing? Because of the expectation of the consumer it conveys.

Placing a label like “made with real chocolate chips” on the package basically says, “We know you think we’re the cheap, inedible store brand… we bet you don’t think we’re good enough to use actual food products, so we’re going on the defensive to let you know otherwise.” After reading the label, my expectations were actually lowered.

What does this mean for the average business, church, web site, etc.? It means that you’re to consider yourself top brand and the only time you should communicate with your consumers about your ingredients is to highlight the awesomeness that sets you apart from the crowd.

If you sell cars, don’t advertise that they “actually run…” If you’re a church, don’t promote the fact that you’re “friendly…” (Every church thinks this, even when it isn’t true.) If you’re selling your house, don’t say “located in a nice neighborhood.” People already have these down in their minds as minimum expectations, or else they wouldn’t be shopping for your product, service, etc.

What then, do you highlight with a shiny button graphic? Whatever sets you apart from the crowd! Whatever goes beyond the consumer’s expectations. When I bought my Toyota pickup, the salesman didn’t tell me it had a body and an engine – he pointed out that it has 13 cup holders.

Find out what sets you apart and promote it! By the way… in spite of the crumby marketing plan (no pun intended), I bought the cookies, which merely proves that even mediocrity sells sometimes. And they were pretty good, in spite of my mind’s wondering what other parts of the cookie might be made with fake stuff.

Wanna know the problem with an “under construction” page? Well, there are several. First, your content (or lack thereof) gets indexed and the cashed version of your page may not be updated for a while. Second, nobody knows how long you’ve been under construction, nor how long you’ll be that way. Third, it leaves a deflated feeling in your visitors when they click a link on your main page.

I recommend using these “coming soon” pages very sparingly. Don’t create a large graphical link to some awesome feature that you’re going to release soon and allow people to click through to an “under construction” note. Just leave the graphic link-free for now. Nonetheless, sometimes an under construction or coming soon (my preferred syntax) page is necessary. When it is, make the most of it.

1. Resist the temptation to reveal too much.

A well-designed page is great, but don’t offer a nice, graphically-intensive header, a full sidebar, and one little line of text announcing that the site will be online soon. Keep your site’s design behind the scenes and use an alternative design that is small and simple so that it doesn’t look empty. Empty buildings are awkward for public speakers as well as the tiny audiences they serve. The same is true on a full page with one tiny little line of text.

2. Make your contact information available.

Often a coming soon page creates questions as to the legitimacy of a site. Is there really anybody working on the construction crew at all? A simple contact form or email address would be a nice addition, just to let someone know you’re truly going to return their call later.

3. Don’t lose the visitor forever – keep in touch.

One of the biggest mistakes is hoping that someone will actually check in again. Do you ever think to go back to the page you visited once for no apparent reason to see if construction is complete? Neither do your site’s visitors. So if you’re using blogging software or a feed service, put the RSS link there so they’ll be notified of your first post. You can also allow the visitors to sign up for an email update, but they probably won’t do it.

4. Be a little bit creative.

Don’t use the lines “This page is under construction” or “our site will be online soon.” Why? because those are not things people say – they are things that signs say, and nobody can relate to a sign. What about, “Wow, you’re here early! We’re flattered but also a bit embarrassed that we’re not quite dressed yet, so let us notify you when we’re ready… just fill out this form…” Doesn’t that feel a bit more human?

5. Provide some simple resource links.

Whatever your niche is, go ahead and capitalize on all the free junk online by offering some helpful links. This is kind of like living on a dead end, and welcoming people to turn around in your driveway. You obviously want to avoid sending people to your competitors, but you could at least suggest some nice options. If nothing else, people may remember you for providing them a good link.

Maybe the whole “under construction” topic doesn’t seem necessary, but I wrote this article after visiting two sites consecutively that offered me the classic lines mentioned above. So I thought I’d throw this “pre-marketing” help your way. More help is coming soon…