Seven Key Learnings The New Brownlow Medalist Can Teach Us All About Social Media Marketing

Brownlow  Night

Like millions of others I sat by the television the other night and followed closely as the Brownlow Medal count was held at the palatial Crown Casino and watched  with great admiration as the winner of the most prestigious individual award Matt Priddis accepted his prize with an amazing level of grace, humility and professionalism.Through this speech it occurred to me that several of the same factors that had propelled this rare individual to this moment of  glory are the same key principles that each brand needs to embrace to work towards gaining the same level of respect and admiration.

1. Play to your strengths

Every business will have some area or areas of expertise and excellence where they are as good or better than the opposition. Hopefully with a well thought out and updated SWOT analysis these strengths will be properly articulated and understood for your business. Know them, leverage them and always play to them. In Matt's case, his incredible in and under ball getting ability.

2. Identify areas of development and improve them

So often with awards like this one we see winners of awards with players who are gifted and seemingly have no weakness but the reality is they all do. The only difference is they acknowledge those weaknesses and actively work to consolidate that area over time.  In Matt's case, early on his disposal by foot was inconsistent and needed further refinement.

3. Be transparent and real in all your communications

People can smell a fraud a mile off so don't be one. When you speak for yourself or your brand be real at all times. Put the ego on hold and speak plainly and to the point. As a rule, people appreciate this and reward it more often than not. In Matt's case his acceptance speech was filled with a simple honesty that was clear for all to see.

4. Respect and acknowledge your rivals

In the real world few if any businesses operate in a monopolistic arena. It is important to be aware of and acknowledge the value of key competitors and the value that they offer the target market you also seek to positively influence in a sincere and genuine manner. In Matt's case, he spoke in glowing terms of the champion midfielders he has admired and tried to learn from for years citing the likes of Ablett, Judd and Selwood.

5. Persevere

Unlike other marketing functions such as sales promotion, social media marketing is a proverbial slow process which requires time, effort and patience. Greatness almost never happen overnight. If you're not prepared to do the hard yards in finding, engaging with and supporting the needs of your audience, social media is simply not for you. In Matt's case after being overlooked in four straight national drafts, he was eventually drafted in 2006 and over the course of the next eight years established himself as an A Grade midfielder and a people's champion.

6. Be humble

Modesty some would argue is not mandatory. On this you can make your own mind up but personally I prefer someone modest in victory and humble in defeat. Someone that takes accountability and never practices the art of deft deflections to the fine leg boundary. Companies that mirror this approach as an extension of the core values are universally admired and ultimately successful.          In Matt's case, a speech that resonated with a genuine modesty and almost disbelief at having achieved such a sought after prize.

7. Always look the part

Ultimately people expect to see a professional looking and well organised, functional approach to everything you do to reinforce your positioning and the value that you bring to the table should they decide to use your product or service. In Matt's case, Exhibit A: the photo above. Enough said. 

Summary

In the end every business wants to impress and positively influence both existing and potential customers alike, yet only some end up doing so. A quietly spoken young man this week etched his name in football immortality but more important showed us all in a few minutes how it's done.

And until next time, good luck and good marketing.
Regards,
Daniele.

The PEST Analysis: Providing Insight Into The Market Infuences And Dynamics

Background

As readers of this blog you know that I have always believed that the most underutilised tool in the business world is the all encompassing SWOT analysis. It is perfect for any business in any market and provides unfailing insight into both the internal processes and systems of your business as well as the external market forces that prevail outside of your business.  Recently I had a student ask me about what is the best way to assess the current and foreseeable opportunities and threats that are likely to present themselves within the next twelve months?  Enter the  PEST analysis.

                                                                  http://bit.ly/1pkgwUJ

The PEST Analysis

The PEST analysis is a structured framework of macro-environmental (external) factors, which essentially act as a feeder that facilitates a better awareness of the likely opportunities and threats that your market will present your business in the short, medium and long terms based on the current available knowledge and understanding. It is made up of four key groupings.

Political 

Political factors examines how directly and to what extent the Government (National, State or Local) intervenes either in the market your business operates in and/or within the economy. Political factors include monetary and fiscal policy, taxation levels, employment law, environmental legislation and regulation, trade policies and tariff settings.

Economic

Economic factors include various aspects that measure the state and dynamics of the economy such as the inflation rate, foreign currency exchange rates, income tax rates, the level of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the level of budget deficit or surplus.  The robustness or weakness of the key economic indicators have a direct and profound effect on the level of business optimism, levels of risk tolerance and subsequent levels in business expenditure.

Social (and Cultural)

Social factors look at the prevailing attitudes, beliefs and generally sum up the current mind set of the people within different groups that make up the community or market place. These factors include: key demographics such as age distribution and population growth rate as well as attitudinal data such as environmental attitudes, home ownership, career aspirations and immigration. Changing beliefs in these social factors affect the demand for a company's products and future products. Currently for example Australia has a Baby Boomer driven aging population that will increasing require additional levels of pharmaceuticals, medical services, retirement facilities,etc.

Technological

Technological factors as the name suggests involve any refinement or advance that occurs in the processes, automation or broad technology used by that market or industry. As the levels of sophistication and cost for technology rise in any given market, so to do the barriers to entry which protect the businesses currently within that space and deter potential rivals from entering. Broadly speaking technological advances made by any business or group within a market, drive continued research by the other players to match and surpass that business and lead to greater quality, production levels of efficiencies in production supporting a more profitable outcome.

Summary

By utilising the PEST analysis and reviewing your findings on a regular basis you will be able to ensure that you are feeding the best, most relevant and timely information into the SWOT analysis as the basis for robust and reliable long term, strategic and short term, tactical decision making for your business.

Naturally to discuss any of the marketing and social media discussions raised here, please come along to any of the Free Digital Enterprise Workshops and sign up for a Free Four hour coaching session for your business at: http://www.vecci.org.au/business-solutions/digital-enterprise-program
Hope to see you there.

So until next time, good luck and good marketing.
Regards,
Daniele.

LinkedIn Publishing Soon To Be Available To All LinkedIn Users

Background

In a recent post I mentioned that LinkedIn were trialling their new blogging feature LinkedIn Long Form Publishing on their site with a highly select group of only 20,000 key opinion leaders and influencers. The likes of Bill Gates, Richard Branson and Michael Cuban have been writing updates and posting on a regular basis to incredible numbers of readers.

So What Has Changed

Since that original introductory phase LinkedIn have revealed that this highly desirable feature will be systematically rolled out to all users in the next few months and will therefore be able to be used by anyone who is an active member of the LinkedIn platform. The potential for all members is extraordinary to direct and amplify a message or piece of work.

The Numbers Behind LinkedIn

LinkedIn  currently has over 300,000,000 members and operates in over 200 countries and territories globally in over twenty languages, making it unequivocally the number one professional business networking site in the world bar none. True some other sites are larger but those sites are for the most part social sites where many of the members have no interest in business, where as here with LinkedIn virtually the entire group is actively involved in business, networking or some form of lead generation.

How LinkedIn Publishing Works

Eventually we will all be seeing the same pen icon in the top right hand corner of our LinkedIn screens. When you see and click on this button the publishing input area as per picture below will open up with a brief set of explanatory slides to guide you with your first post.

This is a tremendous opportunity todemonstrate your knowledge, skills and experience and in so doing position yourself as an expert in your field and be able to build your reputation within your field. I think many people were disappointed when LinkedIn removed the Answers Feature some time ago which essentially allowed people to do much the same thing. So at least this new feature replaces Answers with the added advantage of being able to further amplify the message to a much greater extent than before.

After you post an update with LinkedIn Publishing, it will be added to your profile each time and from there you can share it with your own network, where your network members and followers are then able to share it both on and off LinkedIn. At any stage you will be able to check the internal analytics page to see how widely distributed the post is being shared. As well this content will be searchable both on and off LinkedIn for greater access so as always make sure you try to always optimise your content with the right key words and phrases.

Naturally for more information on anything LinkedIn, Social or digital media marketing you should
go to the:  VECCI website on:
http://www.vecci.org.au/business-solutions/digital-enterprise-program/workshops
Here you will be able to sign up for any of the seven free two hour workshops and automatically qualify for a free four hour coaching session for your business.

So until next time, good luck and good marketing.
Regards,
Daniele.

Cost Plus Pricing May Be The Preferred Method For Small Business But It's Filled With Risk

Pricing Is One Of the Four P's

Unashamedly this blog focuses most of its efforts on Promotion, Product and Place. Namely the 3 P's that costs the business money. Rarely if ever have we spoken about the equally important fourth P: namely Pricing which is coincidentally the only one of the four P's that earns the Business revenue so let's change that and have a discussion now.

                                                Image from:  http://www.trinityp3.com/2013/01/value-based-pricing

In truth I have been getting this same question for a while as to what is cost -plus costing, what are the pros and cons and how effective is it as a means of being able to set effective price levels for your business.

What Is Cost Plus Pricing

As the name suggests Cost - Plus Pricing is when you buy an item and you add some additional amount either in dollar terms or as a percentage of the cost price to calculate the sales price to plan to sell the item for.

How Is It Calculated

So for example if you buy a pen for cents a unit you might say we want to add fifty cents to the cost price and sell it for one dollar a pen, where this additional fifty cents will cover our additional costs and profit margin.

Perhaps a slightly more qualified example may be a s business that sells pizzas.
They know that it costs them $5 to make the pizza
They believe that they can sell 10,000 a year (or 27 a day).
They also project that their  operating costs for the year will be $100,000

There for the total cost of the pizza will be:

$100,000/ 10,000 =  $10 indirect cost per pizza plus $5 cost of cost of goods per pizza = $15/pizza.

Now they may wish to earn 25% profit on every pizza sold so the sales price would be:
$15 + $5 = $20 sales price per pizza.

Based on this the business would earn: $200,000 (i.e: 10,000 pizza sold at $10).

Pros and Cons Of The Cost Plus Pricing Strategy

Put simply the greatest argument that anyone can make for Cost - Plus pricing is it's simplicity.
You merely add or multiply the cost of the good by some nominated amount or percentage and you have your sales price. Simplicity itself.

However the negatives are I believe more compelling.  When you use this method you are assuming that your target market are willing and able to purchase your goods at the price you have come up with. But what if they are not able or willing to do it? In that case the product simply does not sell.

 The Best Use 

In the end based on the inherent drawback, the best use for Cost - Plus pricing is not to set prices purse, but rather to determine if  that market based on the current pricing levels and market dynamics is one you should be in or trying to get into. Many times this analysis will be proof you should just walk away and pick another market to go into business.

It is worth remembering also that at the end of the day any product or service is only ever worth what someone else is willing to offer you for it. Not what it's worth or what you paid for it, but only what they are willing to pay.

 And of course for more information on Pricing or anything else in marketing or digital media sign up for any of the seven free Digital Enterprise Program workshops and receive your free four hour coaching session for your business at:
http://www.vecci.org.au/business-solutions/digital-enterprise-program/workshops


So until next time, good luck and good marketing.
Regards,
Daniele.