Rays Baseball Attendance - how to increase it:

Over and over on talk radio, blogs and Tweets, the fans and the media go back and forth either complaining about the attendance at the Tampa Bay Rays game, and why they don't attend. Looking at it from a product-value perspective here are a few ideas how to increase attendance:

First, the reasons for attending a game. Going to a Rays baseball game provides the opportunity to engage with others of similar passion and feed off the combined energy of others at the ball park! How many of you high five at home, or jump to your feet and cheer? That experience provides an intense adrenalin rush you just don't get at home watching the game on your TV. Plus, talking with others around you about the game and having that shared human interaction experience also provides for a more memorable evening. 
So why then are people choosing to stay home? 

Here's just four ideas on how to improve the game-day-experience by bringing some of the features and positive experiences from the TV, to the ballpark:

1. Add more instant replays to the giant screen at the stadium. I'm spoiled. I'm use to seeing exciting and close plays over and over again from different angles, and/or in slow motion – and because of that, my mind and interest in the game is increased in between pitches and plays. At the Rays' games it is rare to see any kind replay, and never when an umpire is involved in a play.

2. I like seeing the occasional FoxTrack strike zone box that locates the pitches – it gives a computer perspective on the balls and strikes as well as seeing how the strategy of the pitches to the batter is evolving. Ya, ya, that is like hitting a hornets nest with a sharp broken bat. Ok, so not every pitch -- and as a compromise FoxTrack only shows when it agrees with what the umpire called on that recent pitch to keep the players, managers and fans calmer, but at least the fan would get to see the pitch history and how the strategy of pitches are building on each batter. That is called engaging your customers in your product.

3. At the ballpark an emotional or close up connection is missing with the players. 
How so? On TV I see a close up of the pitcher taking a deep breath, wiping his brow, making eye contact with his catcher – and I'm able to read his facial expressions, which adds to the drama of the moment. Same with the batters, where are they looking, do they look cool or worried, frustrated or confident? A close up of the players on the big screen could add a more personal touch to attending the live game, like it does on TV. Sure, the other team would be watching the facial expressions and trying to read something into it -- but wouldn't that just add to the tension and intensity of the game, for players and the fans?!

4. Payer and fan interaction. When the players get done patting each other on the back after a win, wouldn't it be cool if the players divided up and jogged to the foul poles and then high-fived people down the foul lines at the end of the game before they hunkered down in their clubhouse to party? That would bring something to the fans in attendance that the TV fans can't experience – personal interaction. Have the players act like they really care the fans are there in attendance, not just appear like they are entitled to have fans in the stands because they are major league ball players.

Now for the big how-to Summary!!!  In order for people to attend the game, it has to be an experience that is better than watching it on TV. There are features and advantages to both the TV and at the park, but at the moment, apparently there are more advantages to watching it on TV. Come on Rays and major league baseball, add in some of the best features from the TV to the ballpark, and the experience of the live game becomes a better experience than watching it at home. The value of attending the game involves weighing the cost and time involved -- and comparing the features and advantages between the TV and the ballpark. So if the Rays were to add the advantages of the TV -- to the live game experience, the fan's perception of value will increase, and so will attendance.

The worst design idea for using a company logo

Warning! There is still a segment of the marketing/sales decision-making community that loves to use their company logo as a big fat watermark faded back in the center of a page of sales and product information. 

So why is this such a Bad Idea?

Maybe it's because they don't have any other ideas on how to emphasize key points in their document that they do such a silly thing. Creating that logo watermark effect makes it hard to read the information that needs to be communicate to current or potential customers. 

Stop doing that! It's a late1980's design approach, back when the advertising community first started using computers and could do dumb effects such as that, only because they could, and the sales or marketing manager at a company thought it was cool. That coolness faded 25 years ago, and it is time to move on to using graphics, photos, illustrations, social media and videos to help communicate the value of the product or service being offered.

The example on the left has a dark enough logo to be recognized for what it is, but it makes the text hard to read or annoying, and the prospective customer probably just moves on. The lighter logo watermark on the right, though being less intrusive, looses the "number 3" part of the logo. Either way, the reader's eye is drawn to this visual effect, versus drawing them into the content of the message, making this the worst design idea for using a company logo.

Related articles

• Starting a Business
• Trade Show Booths - How to Draw People in.
• Identify Who You are Presenting to - Part 1 of 3 (Visual people).
• Communicate Value not Features

8 ways a blog benefits your business (part 2 of 2)

Cont. 

5. Links for Search Engine Optimization. As well as the direct traffic benefit of leads, links are important in bringing in search visitors. The more linkable your website, the better your search results will be. Very often traditional websites are difficult to link to and not easy for search engines to index. This can be due to the website's structure, the software it's built with, or its overly complex URLs. Blogs are not only more linkable, but when linked to your website they make the two together more robust for search engines.

6. PR and customer support. It is an opportunity for you or your company to respond to a customer's negative feedback experience. The negative comment just may be something you might want to fix, or at least address the issue head on and communicate the perception that you care about your customers conderns. These days, customer service and public relations have never been more important; a bad story can spread around the web’s social networks at light speed. Your blog becomes a responsive outlet to explain your side of any story and douse the fires of negative activity.

7. Grow a community. Through discussion, interaction and comments, you can help forge a sense of community that can be strengthened both online and off.

8. Offer better service. Your blog provides multiple routes for customers and prospects to get in touch. It can show your human, approachable side, allow better customer interaction, and improve customer service. All of these benefits add up to more new and repeat sales from much happier and better informed customers.

Gary At 3dbGroup

8 ways a blog benefits your business (part 1 of 2)

1. A good blog not only generates traffic, but also helps retain that traffic, keeping people coming back and growing in loyalty. With a blog you can hold prospects' interest for a longer period of time, turning prospects into admirers, and bringing them back to hear from you long after their first contact. 

2. Informed and educated visitors become confident, loyal customers. More people are turning to the Internet to research before they buy. You can position your company as a go-to resource, thereby winning more business. Plus, with blogging, information flows both ways. You can gain insights into your customers' minds, their needs, challenges and preferences. Comments, feedback forms, surveys and polls become instant, spontaneous market research tools.

Photo-illustration by Gary Greer courtesy of Curtiss-Wright.

3. Build trust and familiarity. Trust is vital in making sales and important for encouraging visitors to opt into your lead-generation process. By starting with compelling information and resources, and by encouraging repeat communication, you build familiarity. Over time, this creates a strong bond of trust and brand, making sales so much easier. 

4. Branding. This positive attention and these value-based, long-term experiences don’t just create trust. They help to create a stronger, better brand. This leads to word-of-mouth advertising, which is one of the best forms of promotion you can get.

Blogging benefits 5-8 coming soon, subscribe to this blog so you don't miss the rest... 

Please comment below – I would like to hear your experiences and comments if blogging has or hasn't worked for you or your company.

Questions? Contact: Gary Greer

Trade Show Booths - How to Draw People in.

Size doesn't matter. 
Wether you have a small 10 foot linear booth with a black drape and a table, or a 20x30 island trade show space, you still need to catch peoples attention. How? There are several ways, from pre-show emails, and marketing strategies, to sponsoring a luncheon and handing out something that gets your target audience to go to your booth. Of course those methods involve some level of marketing sophistication and expense.


Good news! 
There is another method that is equally effective if done correctly and professionally – a looping video. Your product or service could be put to music with value-based captions!

What do you show? 
Not all products, services or companies lend themselves to creating an eye popping video to draw people into their booth. Then again, with an idea and some creative editing, almost any business has something visual that could draw potential customers to their booth. Take for example a machining company that manufactures parts for the aerospace industry and government contracts – sounds a little dry, but decision makers who are in that business are interested in the details and how things are made. A video can be played on a lap top, or on a rented 32 inch or larger monitor. The concept in this video was to not only show machines working to music, but communicate through the captions the value and uniqueness the company offers.

High and low costs for a video. 

You could spend thousands bringing in a production crewe with lighting, dollies, trollies and set up each shots with tripods and reflector screens. OR – To keep the costs way down, I shot this entire video using a Flip HD camera – all hand held, no extra lights or assistants (crisp high definition too). This video was created for Tampa Bay Machining – and all of these videos from one machine and department to the next were video taped in an hour and a half. Bam fast. It was completed by the next day with music soundtracks, (almost all of the sounds I added like closing doors, drilling and water squirting), plus captions and jump-cut editing to match the beat of the music. Yes, it could be more polished, they are a few wiggles here and there, but the cost is 1/5th of the normal video production company would charge – and it still gets the message across and draws people into the booth – and isn't that the main idea?


Again, size doesn't matter. 
The key to a successful video is not how big the production crewe is, but using someone who has a creative eye for movement, transitions, editing, and sound.

See it here:  TBM Trade Show Video Loop

(Turn your sound up, it makes the video more dramatic).

Identify Who You are Presenting to – Part 3 of 3 (people-persons).

The third type of listener I have identified are people-persons. People who fall into this category are relationship-based, make decisions and behave based upon the way something feels to them. They buy-into people first, and prefer creating relationships based on trust. You could also call them touchy-feely people. They can be loyal customers, and buy from you because of how they feel about you and your company.

People-persons assimilate information through their sense of touch.  And because of this, they rely on more on their physical senses. As an example, they are typically known to acquire a physical skill faster than the average person – observe if they fiddle with pens, paper and other objects as they talk. Do they intermix business with social discussions about family, and organizations they belong too?

Common phrases that you may hear from people-persons are like  “that person or company is all washed up”. They may also use phrases like, “I feel your frustration” or “that feels right”.

They also like to give analogies that relate to the way they feel about things that happen to them. As an example, instead of saying, “I was really mad”, they would say something like “my blood was boiling”.

The key to engaging this kind of prospect is to build a relationship. Give them things to touch and hold – like your product or even a part of something bigger which you sell that helps you communicate the quality and value of your product. Once you make a people-persons connection with them, it lowers their guard and makes them more receptive to your presentation.

One of the most effective ways to build a relationship with any type of person is by determining which way a person best listens and relates to you. Aside from understanding your message more clearly, they will also feel naturally connected to you as people generally feel bonded or connected to those that remind them of themselves or those with whom they have things in common with.

The next time you begin a conversation with a prospective customer, start paying attention to the way they communicate. You’ll begin to notice that people generally fall into the visual, auditory or people-persons categories. Then as you move along through your sales and relationship building processes, you will be better equipped to communicate with your future customers.

Now there will be times where people overlap some of the different listening and comprehension styles, but generally there is one dominant system that controls their outlook on life. If you need help tweaking your current sales presentation to appeal to the listening and comprehension styles of different prospects, click here to send me an inquiring email.

Identify Who You are Presenting to – Part 2 of 3 (Auditory people)

The next listener types are the auditory people. Auditory people absorb information by listening – they need to be able to clearly hear what it is that they are being told. They will look you directly in the eyes to hear you better, where as visual people are looking around, searching for visual cues so they can comprehend better.

Auditory people enjoy talking with others and conversation is something that they find very interesting. They might lean forward to engage you, just to test and hear if what you are saying is true. They will remember what you say – and possibly challenge verbal claims you make, later on in your presentation. So dial down the BS button with these folks.

Auditory people like to use phrases like, “that sounds good”, “that is clear as a bell” and “listen to me”.

Simply put, auditory people understand spoken language more than anything else. Therefore, when making a presentation to them, focus more on your verbal part of the presentation, (and with less speaker prompts to guide you, you will need to know your product benefits better). Verbally communicate your 5-7 main benefits (or value propositions). Tell them what you plan to tell them using a verbal roadmap of where you are going with your presentation. Writing things down or trying to create a vision for them may appear condescending to them. 

If your website has videos describing your product, service, and other values, that can play an important part of your sales process – they will have other people in your company to listen too that tells them the story of your company and its products. Click here for an example of a video I created for a website that communicates directly to an auditory type person.

For auditory people their world is represented by sound, therefore, to get their attention and engage them, you must say something that sounds very appealing to them. Also make sure you clearly annunciate and be careful with embellishment – this group "hears" right through the BS.

Just as visual people like to look at directions, auditory people would rather hear directions read out loud by someone else, because retaining information by looking at it can be difficult for them, whereas hearing is better comprehension for them. If they are that type of listener, don’t waste your marketing budget dollars leaving behind your standard folder full of literature – ask if there is anything else they need, and listen to them like they listen to you.

http://www.wix.com/ggre95/3d-illustrations

Identify Who You are Presenting to – Part 1 of 3 (Visual people).

Illustrations for business website.

When most sales people make a presentation, they assume that the most effective way to gain acceptance and buy-in from prospects is by sharing all of the many features of their product or service as they have time for. The reality is that when they are trying to communicate value to a prospect, they must first gain the prospect’s attention. That is the first obstacle to overcome, because most people really don’t listen to what the salesperson is saying, they just simply remain quiet and wait for their turn to talk. People love to talk more than they like to listen to others.

They key to engaging your prospects is to construct your presentation around their needs and what kind of listener they are; as opposed to overwhelming them with what you have to offer.

The way you construct your presentation to fully engage them, is to understand how they listen and absorb information. There are three general ways in which people listen and absorb information – Visual, Auditory, and People-Persons. First, the visual people relate to the world generally by the way they see things. When they speak, they will use terms like “I see, what you’re saying” or “I can see why you would think that way”.

Visual people better relate and “get” your message by seeing pictures, diagrams, flow charts, and other descriptive imagery. Visual people also like to observe others and may be fascinated with photography or things that generally involve envisioning. They will remember concepts, product names and the value you offer – as a result of a visual cue that they receive. Also important, is the “professional look” of your brand, and they will compare your brand’s image to your competitions brand. If you look cheap, they will think your product is cheap, and they will expect your prices to be cheap too.

 

Visual people listen better when following a visual story and the value you have to offer – when it is clearly written down. When trying to influence a visual person, your best bet is to provide them with visual examples,  “proof on paper” of what you’re speaking about. A marketing piece that is specifically designed to be left behind – that summarizes your presentation, is more effective for them to not only remember your points, but be able to retell your story to other stakeholders in the decision making process.

It takes patience and a little extra work to create a presentation that appeals to all three types of listeners. I've heard comments like, “I don’t have time for that, I have sales calls to make” or, “I have no idea how to vary my presentation to appeal to all audiences, I just use what the company gives me”.  In the long run, making the effort, or hiring someone who can create those tweaks for you, will make for a higher percentage of sales wins for you and your company. You can run around from call to call – putting lots of lines in the water and hoping for a big hit, or know how to cast an effective sales presentation and catch more customers on a regular basis.

The next couple of blogs will talk about the other two ways people listen and absorb information – and how to identify the other types of listeners, click to follow, and you will get a ding when the next blog is posted.

Improving a restaurant's customer experience.

Branding a new place to eat.

I went to an interesting new little place for lunch in Clearwater called, Campfire Vittles. hhttp://www.campfirevittles.com/location  It has a very fun atmosphere, with the walls and ceiling mural-painted like you are outdoors at a campsite. 

Unfortunately, the place at lunch time had just three people in it. So as a branding consultant for many different types of companies, here's my quick take on how they might be improve the customer experience and be more successful –

The good: Campfire Vittles has a great logo, unique campsite atmosphere and uses the back of a chuck wagon for drinks and set ups. The hot dog was very good, with lots of topping choices -- it was large and a meal in itself.

Build a Better Burger: If they specialize in just hamburgers and hotdogs, then the hamburger needs to be bigger and better like you might get at Applebee's (thick and juicy). My hamburger was just ok, about like I might expect from a fast food place or maybe a Sam's Club cooked burger. To set themselves apart from being a fast food place (which they are not with a $5 burger), with very limited choices -- they need to be known or thought of as the gourmet king of hamburgers, and not a small step above a fast food place with a limited menu. As cool as the outdoor mural of a campsite atmosphere is, people won't come back unless the food is a good value that brings them back.

Food presentation communicates the brand: Instead of serving the lunch in a brown paper bag which looks like a bag for take-out -- they should serve it in a pie tin like they did out on the trail at a campfire from a chuck wagon – that would be a much better way to present the food. Branding is about communicating value. If food is presented in a brown paper bag that you have to dig through to get your food, it doesn't have the same level of perceived value of your food being served on a plate.

Those are just a few thoughts on how to improve their customer's experience. 

(If you haven't been, it is a fun little place for the atmosphere to check out, and they do have chicken and veggie burgers as well).

http://www.campfirevittles.com/location

How to Improve Your Resume!

First, some of you reading this might be thinking – 
• How can a marketing guy help with resume writing? 
• What does he know about me and the jobs I'm looking for? 
• Resumes are supposed to be written a certain way – so I'm locked into that, how can he help me?


What I do is help companies sell products and services, so why not sell yourself using some of the same principles?

If you are looking for an illustrator, email me (ggreer@tampabay.rr.com), for my illustration website URL.

I recently had been contacted by a couple of friends looking for work, and they sent me their resumes. Yikes!  Because I thought they needed to head in a more value-based direction, here is the advice I offered (names and positions were changed to protect the innocent).


Here’s a few suggestions to make your resume have more pop and communicate more of the value that you can bring to the job. First, use action verbs to make yourself sound more active and dynamic.

The typical introduction paragraph is a summary of what you have done, but consider writing about the value of what you could do for a company. That will help focus the reader as to what kind of position you are looking for, how you could add value (save them money, increase efficiency, improve their bottom line, etc.).

Think ROI – Important: What is the company going to get for their return on their investment of time and money, by hiring you? You need to tell them, not assume they will figure out what your value is by combing through your resume – they don’t have time to do that! 


Avoid long, run-on sentences – make them short and punchy that communicate your value. Secondly, use action verbs to make yourself sound more active and dynamic.

If you are looking for a management position – I don’t recommend using the words “responsible for” as that sounds like you have just been following directions. Write with active phrasing using key action verbs – like this example:

Typical opening paragraph for a specific company;
Responsible for developing new business and for providing recommendations and launching initiatives to improve the overall management of a leading company in the field of power transmission.

Opening paragraph using action verb phrasing:
Improved the efficiency of the marketing and sales processes to create new business opportunities. Developed and launched initiatives that improved the overall management of the company. During my leadership at ABC Company, it was the number one supplier in the power transmission marketplace. 


(Note the use of action verbs. They may have been the number one supplier before you got there, and may not have been when you left, but during your time at ABC it was the number one supplier, and by stating that you will catch more attention and can go into more detail if required at your job interview).


Also, at many companies resumes are filtered on-line or scanned internally by resume auto readers that sort for key words. Know the system, check out this URL: http://www2.ferrum.edu/career/guide/keywords.htm.


Even if you know your resume will go directly to the hiring person and not through a resume scanner, it will still help to use key words. So remember, incorporate as many different action verbs as you can, and you might get more action on your resume.

Communicate Value not Features

Value-based versus feature-based text when writing for marketing materials, (or how to sell your product or service more effectively). 

Value is the feeling you get for something based on how much you paid. A poor value is feeling like you got cheated or this was not what you expected, and telling others what a piece of crap it was. A good value is buying something that you believe is a really good deal -- that it is worth more than what you paid for it. A good value uses saving time, saving money or providing piece of mind as a hook.  

The key to convince a prospect to at least consider your product or service is to communicate to them that your product or service is a good value, not that it has more whiz bang features than your competitors. 

Example with a feature-based approach. Engineers and designers would feel real proud of their product if it was written something like this:

"Our new hybrid engine is connected to the transmission via a unique flywheel off-load gearing system, and the large 8 caliber nitrogen filled piston brakes are great for stopping the 19 inch wheels. We have a 24/7 fully staffed service department to expertly repair any problems you might have."

Example revised with a value-based approach, so the prospect is more likely to want more information or a demonstration:

You can significantly lower your monthly costs on gas because the improved efficiency of our new hybrid engine gets up to 45mpg. Our vehicle lowers your overall insurance expenses because the extra large brakes can dramatically shorten your car’s stopping distance. To prevent unexpected break downs and give you peace-of-mind, our car has an automated feature that tells you when to go in for warranty service.

The text above has plenty of room for grammar editing and styling -- I just wanted to quickly get the concept of feature versus value-based writing out there, without a lot of copy noodling.

Punching up an email with an attached report

(Coaching a current customer): 
How to make a letter accompanying a report be more personal and have more punch.


Points to consider:

• Make your email letters more personalized by using the words your, me and I, so that it appears to be coming from you rather than the organization in general. All of your correspondence should utilize personal words like I and you, more often.

• I recommend calling your peers at work, experts — it raises the perceived value level of their input and of the value of their membership in general.

• Use more action verbs.

• In your original letter you used the phrase, “strongly encourage” -- that could be interpreted as telling someone to do something, versus “encourage” sounds more like you are being helpful.

• Make sure each paragraph communicates how you are providing value, otherwise what is the purpose of what you are saying?

Mr./Ms.

I’ve just completed this report for your inquiry regarding "........."
If I receive additional responses or information, I will forward them directly to you and add them to your report.

Let me know if the information in this report meets your needs. Your feedback and comments will be helpful for me to improve my process of providing expertise and information to you that not only meets your expectations, but exceeds them. The advice in this report has the names and contact information of the experts who provided this valuable information. I'm here to help, so if you need additional detail, please call me anytime, my contact information is below. 

Starting a Business

Recently I was asked for advice from someone who was getting a patent for an invention and they needed a website to promote their product and sell it. They didn't want to spend a lot of money on a website, they just wanted to "dip their toe in the water" first. 


Where or how do you start? If you are going forward with wanting to manufacturer and sell your product yourself, (and you have gotten feedback from friends – they would buy it and for how much), there is a lot of marketing, website development, social media connections/applications, linking, search engine optimization, etc. that would need to be done to successfully launch a product using an ecommerce website. There really isn’t just a “I want to dip my toe in the water” type website that will actually bring you business of any significance. There are a lot of interconnecting business and marketing pieces that need to be applied to successfully launch a new product. 


Here are just a few things that need to be considered: 
Do you have a business plan?
Are you self-funding or are you planning to get investors?
Where are you having your product manufactured?
Have you established wholesale, distributor and retail pricing?
Do you have a product packaging design? 

Where will the packaging be made and figure in shipping and storage into your cost of goods.

What are your distribution plans (store placement, Internet, or infomercials)?
How are you bringing this to the marketplace -- do you plan to be the wholesaler and will you get manufacturer reps? 

Don’t waste your money and spend a couple thousand or more dollars to get a basic website up and running – just to “see how it goes.” If you want this to be a real money maker, you might want to add investors, with some knowledge of the elements mentioned above, to be a part of your venture. 

I have helped small companies put together a business plan, a brand and marketing strategy, as well a marketing materials and all the items mentioned above. Your best road to success is to have a well thought out business plan and marketing strategy before creating a true, working, ecommerce website.

It's your time and money. If you don't have the passion to create a company, and the time and some level of understanding of the business components mentioned above, here is an alternative: Consider searching for a distributor, (another words, a company that already has sales feet on the street and they just add it to their product line). Negotiate a royalty fee per item sold versus selling the patent outright, and you spend a lot less time, lower your risk and still be able to make a few dollars from your idea.  

If you just dip your toe in the water, 

all that is going to get wet, is your toe.

(This a very broad brush advice, and there are many many other details not mentioned here that should to be considered in your decision making process – if you need help with any of the above, you can contact Gary at ggreer@tampabay.rr.com).