Solutions Manual to Accompany Statistics and Probability with Applications for Engineers and Scientists E-Book

Bhisham C. Gupta

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Seitenzahl: 282

Beschreibung

A solutions manual to accompany Statistics and Probability with Applications for Engineers and Scientists Unique among books of this kind, Statistics and Probability with Applications for Engineers and Scientists covers descriptive statistics first, then goes on to discuss the fundamentals of probability theory. Along with case studies, examples, and real-world data sets, the book incorporates clear instructions on how to use the statistical packages Minitab® and Microsoft® Office Excel® to analyze various data sets. The book also features: * Detailed discussions on sampling distributions, statistical estimation of population parameters, hypothesis testing, reliability theory, statistical quality control including Phase I and Phase II control charts, and process capability indices * A clear presentation of nonparametric methods and simple and multiple linear regression methods, as well as a brief discussion on logistic regression method * Comprehensive guidance on the design of experiments, including randomized block designs, one- and two-way layout designs, Latin square designs, random effects and mixed effects models, factorial and fractional factorial designs, and response surface methodology * A companion website containing data sets for Minitab and Microsoft Office Excel, as well as JMP ® routines and results Assuming no background in probability and statistics, Statistics and Probability with Applications for Engineers and Scientists features a unique, yet tried-and-true, approach that is ideal for all undergraduate students as well as statistical practitioners who analyze and illustrate real-world data in engineering and the natural sciences.

Leseprobe

CONTENTS

UnMarketing

Chapter 1: Hierarchy of Buying

Chapter 2: A Word on Experts

Chapter 3: Trust Gap

Chapter 4: Restaurant That Didn't Get It

Chapter 5: Cold Calling

Chapter 6: Aiming Your Company at the Bottom of the Barrel

Chapter 7: Pull and Stay

Chapter 8: Reasons Why Companies Don't Use Social Media

Chapter 9: Social Media (Social Currency as Well)

Chapter 10: Twitter versus Facebook versus LinkedIn versus Google+

Chapter 11: Social Media Platforming

Chapter 12: HARO—Platforming Example

Chapter 13: The Game Has Changed: Immediacy and Relevancy

Chapter 14: Publicized Customer Service

Chapter 15: Don't Bank on the Bold

Chapter 16: Seven Deadly Social Media Sins

Chapter 17: How Twitter Changed My Business

Chapter 18: Tassimo

Chapter 19: Local Twitter

Chapter 20: Domino's—Word of Mouth: Mouths Are Moving . . .

Chapter 21: Naked Pizza

Chapter 22: Don't Feed the Trolls

Chapter 23: Tweetathon

Chapter 24: Your Website—Old School versus New School

Chapter 25: Captchas

Chapter 26: Experience Gap

Chapter 27: Raising and Keeping the Bar High—Cirque

Chapter 28: Stirring Coffee

Chapter 29: Experience Gap for Small Biz

Chapter 30: Using Stop Start Continue

Chapter 31: Zappos

Chapter 32: Rockport

Chapter 33: FreshBooks

Chapter 34: Why You Can't Learn From Millionaires

Chapter 35: Transparency and Authenticity

Chapter 36: My Transparency on Twitter

Chapter 37: Your Transparency on Twitter

Chapter 38: Affiliates

Chapter 39: Testimonials

Chapter 40: Best Sellers

Chapter 41: Why Being a Work-at-Home Mom Is Bad for Business

Chapter 42: Hello? Walmart?

Chapter 43: Idea Creation

Chapter 44: Idea Delivery

Chapter 45: Doing In-Person Seminars

Chapter 46: Tele-Seminars

Chapter 47: Tele-Summits

Chapter 48: How and Why I Created a Summit Ebook Instead

Chapter 49: Viral Marketing

Chapter 50: Undercover UnMarketing

Chapter 51: Putting It Into Practice

Chapter 52: Lush

Chapter 53: Trade Shows

Chapter 54: Social Media at Trade Shows

Chapter 55: UnNetworking: Why Networking Events Are Evil

Chapter 56: The Awesomeness of Being a 2.0 Author

Chapter 57: The UnTour

Chapter 58: The UnEnd

The Science of Marketing

Part I: Content

Chapter 1: E-Books

Chapter 2: Webinars

Part II: Channels

Chapter 3: SEO

Chapter 4: Twitter

Chapter 5: Facebook

Chapter 6: Pinterest

Chapter 7: Blogging

Part III: Middle of the Funnel (MOFU)

Chapter 8: E-Mail Marketing

Chapter 9: Lead Generation

Part IV: Analytics

Chapter 10: Analytics

Built-in Social: Essential Social Marketing Practices for Every Small Business

Part One: Attraction: Your Essential Content Marketing Strategy

Chapter 1: How the Social Web Works

Chapter 2: Designing Your Business Around Social

Chapter 3: Every Business Is Now a Media Company

Part Three: Conversion: transforming Trust into New Business

Chapter 4: Communities Are the New Markets

Chapter 5: Meet Your New Business Partners

Chapter 6: Business Is Now Personal

Part Three: Conversion: transforming Trust into New Business

Chapter 7: Social and Local are Built-In Mobile

Chapter 8: Creating Digital Marketing Assets

Chapter 9: Relationship Selling in the Trust Economy

Chapter 10: Avoiding the Race to the Bottom

Engagement Marketing

Part I: Rev Up Your Engagement Marketing Engine

Chapter 1: The Engagement Marketing Cycle

Chapter 2: Deliver a WOW! Experience

Chapter 3: Entice to Stay in Touch

Chapter 4: Engage People

Chapter 5: How Engagement Marketing Drives New Prospects to Your Door

Part II: Get More Business With Engagement Marketing

Chapter 6: How Social Visibility Happens

Chapter 7: Engagement Marketing in Action

Chapter 8: Engagement Marketing Tips and Tricks

Chapter 9: Overcoming Common Obstacles

Chapter 10: Resources

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Introduction

Chapter 1: Hierarchy of Buying

Chapter 2: A Word on Experts

Chapter 3: Trust Gap

Chapter 4: Restaurant That Didn't Get It

Chapter 5: Cold Calling

Chapter 6: Aiming Your Company at the Bottom of the Barrel

The Better Bottom of the Barrel

Chapter 7: Pull and Stay

Chapter 8: Reasons Why Companies Don't Use Social Media

Chapter 9: Social Media (Social Currency as Well)

Chapter 10: Twitter versus Facebook versus LinkedIn versus Google+

Facebook

LinkedIn

Twitter

Google+

Chapter 11: Social Media Platforming

Chapter 12: HARO—Platforming Example

Chapter 13: The Game Has Changed: Immediacy and Relevancy

Chapter 14: Publicized Customer Service

Chapter 15: Don't Bank on the Bold

Chapter 16: Seven Deadly Social Media Sins

Greed

Gluttony

Sloth

Envy

Wrath

Lust

Pride

Chapter 17: How Twitter Changed My Business

Chapter 18: Tassimo

Chapter 19: Local Twitter

Chapter 20: Domino's—Word of Mouth: Mouths Are Moving . . .

Chapter 21: Naked Pizza

Chapter 22: Don't Feed the Trolls

Chapter 23: Tweetathon

Chapter 24: Your Website—Old School versus New School

Brochure versus Hub

Pitch versus Authenticity Newsletters

Static versus Dynamic

Our Site versus Your Site

I'm Great versus You're Great

A Jungle versus a Map

High versus Low Barrier to Engagement

Chapter 25: Captchas

Pop-Ups

Chapter 26: Experience Gap

Chapter 27: Raising and Keeping the Bar High—Cirque

Chapter 28: Stirring Coffee

Chapter 29: Experience Gap for Small Biz

Chapter 30: Using Stop Start Continue

Chapter 31: Zappos

Chapter 32: Rockport

Chapter 33: FreshBooks

Chapter 34: Why You Can't Learn From Millionaires

Chapter 35: Transparency and Authenticity

Chapter 36: My Transparency on Twitter

Chapter 37: Your Transparency on Twitter

Chapter 38: Affiliates

Chapter 39: Testimonials

Chapter 40: Best Sellers

Chapter 41: Why Being a Work-at-Home Mom Is Bad for Business

Chapter 42: Hello? Walmart?

Chapter 43: Idea Creation

Chapter 44: Idea Delivery

Chapter 45: Doing In-Person Seminars

Chapter 46: Tele-Seminars

Chapter 47: Tele-Summits

Chapter 48: How and Why I Created a Summit Ebook Instead

Chapter 49: Viral Marketing

The Landing Page

Emotion—How Do You Decide?

Be Prepared for Success

Chapter 50: Undercover UnMarketing

Chapter 51: Putting It Into Practice

Chapter 52: Lush

Chapter 53: Trade Shows

Chapter 54: Social Media at Trade Shows

Chapter 55: UnNetworking: Why Networking Events Are Evil

Chapter 56: The Awesomeness of Being a 2.0 Author

Accessibility

Chapter 57: The UnTour

Brand Enhancement

Value People

Real-World Networking

Chapter 58: The UnEnd

Acknowledgments

Index

Copyright©2012 by Scott Stratten. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, [phone], fax [phone], or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, [phone], fax [phone], or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Stratten, Scott.

UnMarketing : stop marketing. Start engaging / Scott Stratten.—Rev. and updated.

p. cm.

ISBN: 978-1-118-17628-3 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-118-28842-9 (ebk)

ISBN: 978-1-118-28841-2 (ebk)

ISBN: 978-1-118-28840-5 (ebk)

1. Relationship marketing. 2. Viral marketing. I. Title.

HF5415.55.S76 2012

658.8002–dc23

2011042846

For UnJunior

Introduction

“Good afternoon!”

It was the start of an exchange that would set off a chain of events that would shift my opinion of a billion-dollar establishment with one simple act. Let me explain. It's no secret I “enjoy” Las Vegas. After going there 15 times in the past four years, I consider myself an unofficial tour guide and resident of Sin City.

A place that you definitely cannot miss on the strip is the Wynn—very fancy, very pretty, and very expensive. Because the place cost $2.7 billion to build, I assume selling 99-cent hot dogs isn't going to make that money back. I really didn't care about the Wynn—not in a negative way, it just wasn't on my radar. After getting comfortable staying at MGM Grand, The Venetian, and other places, I didn't really see a need to change, until that Saturday.

I had a meeting at the Wynn during the BlogWorld conference. I strolled in through the majestic doors with a friend of mine. As soon as we walked in, we spotted a man (Wes) using a large carpet-cleaning machine. He wasn't in our way, so we really thought nothing of it, but he thought differently. He stopped what he was doing. He looked up and smiled. Not one of those “it's part of my job to smile” ones, but a genuine, warm, authentic smile. And then he said, “Good afternoon, and welcome to the Wynn, please enjoy your day,” all the while looking us right in the eye, like it was his mission to ensure that we knew he meant business.

His welcome changed my entire perception of the Wynn. Almost $3 billion went into making this megacasino resort, and it was one guy who made me want to stay there. He made me want to tell the world about it—made me want to blog about it. The carpet-cleaning dude. I have passed hundreds of people cleaning in casinos in Vegas, but I've rarely been given eye contact, and not once felt welcomed. As a matter of fact, I have never, ever been greeted like that by anyone in Vegas. It is wonderful and sad at the same time. This gentleman, who made me feel welcome at his place of employment, was not only exceptional, but he was extremely rare.

Casinos (and probably most of you in business) all have the same stuff for the most part. All accountants offer accounting services, all coffee joints serve coffee, and all five-star resorts have fancy smells, spas, and pretty patterns. But only one resort has Wes.

Marketing is not a task.

Marketing is not a department.

Marketing is not a job.

Marketing happens every time you engage (or not) with your past, present, and potential customers. UnMarketing also takes it one step further—it is any time anyone talks about your company. Word of mouth is not a project or a viral marketing ploy. The mouths are already moving. You need to decide if you want to be a part of the conversation, which is why I call it UnMarketing—the ability to engage with your market. Whether you employ thousands or are a one-person show, you are always UnMarketing. It's what comes naturally, not being forced to do things that make you ill.1 It's authentic, it's personal, and it's the way to build lifelong fans, relationships, and customers.

If you believe business is built on relationships, make building them your business.

That's the one line that you need to believe to UnMarket. If you don't believe that, return the book. Trash-talk me on Twitter.2 Tell me that cold calling is a great tool if you know how to do it right. Just put the book down.

If you don't believe that your business is to build relationships, then tell me that the foundations of some of the greatest businesses in the world were built through cold calling. What worked decades ago does not work as well today, if at all. Getting a 0.2 percent return on your direct mail piece isn't cutting it anymore. Placing an ad multiple times in a newspaper3 because “people have to see something seven times before acting” is a crock.4 You need to return this book if you say, “I don't have time to build relationships online!” and yet will drive 45 minutes to a networking event, stay three hours, and drive 45 minutes back home.

You need to read this book if you've had enough of the old-school ways of marketing and want to believe there is a better way. You are the person who wants to believe that if you are your authentic self, you have no competition. That even though you may have thousands of providers in your industry to compete with, you bring unique things to the table (which you do).

Let's focus on building relationships and still building a business instead of throwing aside those who don't want to buy (Buy or Good-bye) and build lifelong relationships and a profitable lifelong business, today. Being authentic has nothing to do with being cheesy or passive, and you don't have to sing “We Are the World” and hold hands. Being authentic means that you focus on what you bring to the table. That is what separates you from others in your industry. If you are your authentic self, then you have no competition. I know you have been told to act like other people, talk like other people, and market like all the people, but it is time that you unlearned everything and started to UnMarket yourself.

Notes

1. Cough* cold calling *cough*

2. I'm @UnMarketing, just FYI for a place to point your insults.

3. For those reading this in 2020, newspapers were things that used to be delivered door-to-door by kids initially, then by creepy dudes in vans at 4 AM. They were pages of ads with a sprinkle of articles. I know, weird, eh?

4. I think that phrase was made up by an advertising sales rep. Brilliant.

Chapter 1

Hierarchy of Buying

I surveyed more than 1,000 business owners to ask “Why do you buy?” See Figure 1.1 for the results.

Figure 1.1 Hierarchy of Buying: Service-Based Business

When the need arises, customers buy first from people they know, trust, and like. The higher on the pyramid you are with your market, the less competition you have. We take it from the top down:

Current satisfied customer: Obviously, people are going to buy from you if they already do and are satisfied. The key term here is “satisfied.” Even though customers are current, this doesn't mean they are happy.

Referral by a trusted source: The first thing I do when I need something I don't already have is to ask people I know and trust if they know of a provider, which is easy with sites like Facebook and Twitter. I can get a pile of recommendations in minutes. Are you on the tip of the tongue when someone asks for recommendations within your industry?

Current relationship but have yet to purchase: Potential customers know you, trust you, but have yet to buy from you. And that's okay. The key here is that when they have the need for your product or service, you are in the front of their minds.

Recognized expert in the field: You've built a platform and are consistently in front of potential customers with helpful advice and tips that relate to your industry. You want your market to say, “This guy/girl knows what they're talking about! I need to learn more about them.” If done right, this leads them into “current relationship” status.

Search through ads, random searches, and so forth: We get close to the bottom of the barrel here. Potential customers don't know anyone who provides the service, and have never met anyone, so they randomly search for a business that can help. You're not only at the mercy of a search engine here, but price now becomes a huge decider to the point that you almost become a commodity seller. You don't want to be here.

Cold call: Most of your market isn't sitting around saying “You know, I need an accountant to help my growing business, so I'm just going to sit here until someone randomly phones me to offer me that service.” Cold-calling is time-intensive with horrible results. Companies encourage it because it has a “low cost” upfront, but what's the cost of annoying 99 people in a row to potentially talk to someone who may hire you based on no trust and price alone? I'm starting a movement to change the phrase from “cold-calling” to “telespam.” That will put a stop to the courses; no one is going to sell an ebook about “The Top 10 Ways to Better TeleSpam!”1

So the question is simple: Where on the pyramid are you focusing your marketing efforts? The lowest point with high competition and low margins? Or the middle while aiming to get to the top?

The main reason people don't focus on the middle is because it takes time. There, I admitted it. Building trust takes time. Fostering relationships takes time. So if you're looking to make the quick buck, go ahead, slide into the greasy bottom level, and enjoy. Just take a shower afterward.

Notes

1. I just jinxed it. Someone is going to write this. I picture a guy with greasy hair who runs multiple free seminars in hotels about how to get rich quick in a time of recession. I go to those events just for the free muffins.

Chapter 2

A Word on Experts

Let's think back to what we learned from the hierarchy of buying. To successfully UnMarket your business, your goal should be to get to the point where you are a recognized expert in your field. You can choose to be recognized for a certain discipline, whether it is time management or sales or marketing in general. You can also aim to be recognized as an expert in a specific industry. What you have to realize is that there is an important difference between somebody who is selling something and somebody who is an expert. This is one of the problems when you use advertising or direct mail for your marketing: If your potential customers do not have an immediate need for your product or service, then you are potentially turning them off and losing them for the future. When you position yourself as an expert with useful information for people, your marketplace will always have a need for that information. You have successfully pulled people into your funnel, you have their attention, and now you need to do something great for them.

Contrary to popular belief, I am not opposed to advertisements or direct mail. It is just that in general these methods are executed poorly. They are almost always doomed to fail, and companies put too much focus on them. Advertising or a listing in the Yellow Pages or (cough) even a cold call can “work” if whoever is in contact with you at that very moment has that exact need. And therein lies the problem. You have to blast your message to tens, if not hundreds of thousands or even millions, of people in a spray pattern just to try to grab a few. When you position yourself as an expert in the field, your message is not only in front of people who want to see it, but they have asked to learn about it.

One of the mistakes I see new business owners make, especially in the service industry, is that they don't consider themselves experts. Countless times I've talked to new clients who balk at the idea of being known as an expert. They tell me they're not ready for that yet. They are adamant that they need to do their work longer to call themselves an expert in their field.

Webster's dictionary defines an expert as “having, involving or displaying special skill or knowledge derived from training or experience.” You have to be an expert to run your own business. You're not going to be an accountant or a nutritionist or even a virtual assistant if you don't know something about your industry. Sure, you may not be the expert in the field, but you can certainly be an expert.

People who claim to be the top expert in a certain field often do it in a way that excludes everyone else. In declaring the top spot, these people claim they know the most and everything there is to know about a certain thing. Really, nobody can claim that. Most industries are ever-changing and evolving, as are marketing tools. Of course, customers are always changing, too, as are their needs. A self-proclaimed expert in social media, the one who says that he or she is the expert in social media, in a field that didn't exist a year or two ago, should best be avoided.

Pause when you consider hiring someone who calls themselves the expert. I understand because I also get uncomfortable sometimes with getting that title of an expert or guru in social media. I am one of the experts in relationship marketing and social media who is a great tool to use for that. But for me to claim that I am the expert would be doing a disservice to everybody who is involved in the field.

What is stopping you from calling yourself one of the experts in your field? Being an expert is not an official designation. You don't get a certificate in the mail, nor do you get a cookie. You are an expert when you say you are one. You know how I became an expert in relationship marketing or UnMarketing? I said I was one! This doesn't mean you can become an expert in something you know nothing about. An expert has experience or training in a certain field. Once you have that base set, if you don't have the confidence to call yourself an expert, then you really need to look at yourself. You have to ask, “Why would my customer try to hire me if I don't think I'm great at what I do?”

Once you've accepted the fact that becoming a recognized expert in your field is one of the things you need to do to launch your business off to a great start, we now focus on the term recognized. It doesn't do anybody any good to be an expert only in your own mind, although this does happen to many people all the time. You don't become an expert by just telling people you're an expert—people tell you and then they tell others. When you are great at what you do, other people will say it for you. So focus on positioning yourself with the knowledge you've obtained and set out to help other people with it unconditionally. Use what I lay out in this book to help put you on the right path to not only positioning yourself but also staying as a recognized expert in your field for a long, long time.

Chapter 3

Trust Gap

Why do you buy the things you do? Turn the mirror on yourself for a minute and think about how you make choices about your own purchases.

Trust is one of the main drivers of that hierarchy. The higher the trust, the more likely it is that someone will do business with you. This is an important point in service-based businesses that many business owners fail to recognize. One of the biggest challenges is to get someone to try a service for the first time, so companies offer ways to get you to try it “without risk.” Unfortunately, we often equate this with giving something away for free—but this does not always address the issue of trust.

Before speaking at a professional organizers conference, I researched a bunch of their websites and noticed that many organizers were offering a “Free Consultation” of their potential customers’ home organizational needs, to get their foot in the door. By focusing only on price as a barrier to making the first purchase, they were missing something important. Of course, I do understand that price objection is a legitimate issue with many potential customers. However, there is also a tremendous trust gap. This is the amount of trust you have to earn before your potential customer will consider buying from you. The trust gap can be practically nonexistent, like buying a newspaper, but even then you have to trust that the content will be good. For many service-based businesses, the trust gap is much wider.

So coming back to the professional organizer example, allowing someone into my home requires a lot of trust, which is not established by simply making it free to try. Then on top of just letting you in, you want me to let you see how horribly unorganized I am? Tack on another huge gap. I'd say right about now, the gap is as big as the Grand Canyon. Focusing on price as the only gap between us is misguided. Taking price away as an issue is like me stepping a foot closer when you're two miles away.

Instead of focusing on the cost, let's look for ways to decrease the gap. As a potential client, I really want to get to know and trust you before I have you in my home and give you access to my mess. If, however, I regularly read great tips on your blog and I get updates via an e-mail newsletter that I signed up for, then I will begin to get to know you.

This is also a great opportunity to look for products you can create that would require less trust and be more scalable.1 Why not reduce your customers’ hesitations and come out with an ebook about 30 Days to a Clutter-Free Home? Get out to network and meet other people in your industry or local market and let them know about your business. Local businesspeople can become clients and can recommend you to others, which is very valuable.

Just please, for me, don't put the “Free Consultation Offer!” on the back of your business card. It's like going out on a singles night and letting people know you have a “Free Make-Out Offer!”2 You are not going to this event with the goal of landing a client; you're there to build relationships. We are going to speak often in this book about the difference between your goals and your results. Your goal always needs to be engagement; business will result.

The same goes for a business where your market is made up of solopreneurs—companies that are a one-person show. If, for example, you are a virtual assistant,3 most likely your website talks somewhere about “freeing up your time.” As an entrepreneur running a business alone, no one knows better than I do that I am overworked, and I know I need the help—that's why I am looking on your site. But for me to give away part of my business responsibility is like dropping your kid off at the first day of school. I'm protective and territorial about it and won't just let a person who offers me “One hour free!” to step in and represent my business.

On the other side of that, if you are a solopreneur reading this book, remember that because all points of engagement between your company and your market are potentially UnMarketing opportunities, the people you hire have to be as good as you when they represent it.4

Other areas that have a huge trust gap:

Accounting

Anything to do with kids

Wellness practitioners

Life insurance

Counseling

Life coaching

Lawyers

Many, many more5

Your entire focus when you try to attract new clients in these areas is how you can build trust to reduce that gap. When was the last time a cold call increased trust for you? I thought so.

Notes

1. Scalable is the ability to do something in a large amount. An hour of your time isn't scalable, but an ebook is.

2. Okay, that would be hilarious.

3. It's like having an administrative assistant, but they work from home. I've used them for years. I suggest you do, too.

4. “Represent” does not have to mean direct client contact. If the client works on research, formatting, or e-mail filtering, it can still affect your brand.

5. This is the great bullet-point cop-out. When someone writes to me and says, “You forgot this one!” I can just reply, “Ya, that's what I meant by many, many more!”

Chapter 4

Restaurant That Didn't Get It

When you open a new location-based business that relies on a specific geographic clientele, the biggest hurdle you have to overcome is getting people to come to your business the first time. New customer acquisition is where start-up businesses spend most of their marketing dollars. Why not get people to come by using the foundation of human nature—making people feel special?

A friend of mine who runs a graphic design firm brought me in to speak with one of her clients about marketing a new restaurant. She was designing the restaurant's menus and had been asked if she knew anyone who could come up with some unique ways to market the place. I was excited to work with a place that was open to doing things differently. Well, I was wrong about that.1 But I'm getting ahead of myself.

We sat down together for an awesome lunch,2 and they told me about their vision for the restaurant. They were in a downtown location on the western outskirts of Toronto's core, which is an area with many restaurants. They knew it was going to be a battle to build a customer base.

We discussed a few different things and ideas that they had. We all agreed that their biggest challenge was going to be getting people in the door to try out the food for the first time. The owners had a lot of faith in the quality of their food and service and knew that if we could accomplish getting people to try out the restaurant that they would come back for more.

Perfect! Let's get ready to UnMarket! So here was my proposal:

We need to get a buzz going about the place, but also make people feel exclusive. People love to be made to feel special. Two new condo towers just opened a block away from here, filled with potential customers. I will approach the property management company and let them know that we are going to set aside one night each for the buildings where the residents would have exclusive access to your restaurant.

So far, so good, the owners were smiling.

Here's the kicker. You won't charge them a cent.

Previous smiles were now gone.

You will have two sittings on each night, and people who are interested will have to reserve in advance. When they arrive, they are given your chef's choices of a variety of your best dishes. Not full meals, but enough collectively so they will be full and content. Since you can seat 40 people at a time, two seatings a night, we will get more than 150 people in here on two weeknights, which wouldn't be busy anyway. These two nights are going to be a great success and get that word of mouth moving.

They just stared at me. I assumed it was because of the shock that set in due to the sheer brilliance they just witnessed. Nope. One replied: “No offense,3 but that is going to cost us a lot of money! This is a little far-fetched.” When I asked them how much it would cost in food, they mentioned maybe a few thousand dollars, which resulted in this exchange:

How much did you guys spend on that magazine ad this month?

About $5,000.

How many customers did it bring in?

We don't know.

It was my turn to stare blankly at them. They weren't biting, so I even offered to guarantee it would work and to withhold any consulting fee until we met an agreed-on attendance rate for those nights. The food cost and my fee would have been less than the amount they paid for that ad, plus the guarantee! No dice.

In the end, they decided not to go with the plan and are no longer in business.4 Sometimes you've got to think like a customer. Why would I go to your place if I have never heard of it? Trying out your food and service is going to cost me money, and I have to take all the risk. This is amplified in a market where there are tons of competitors, and all kinds of choices that I already trust are available. The value of having a packed restaurant would also have affected people walking by, seeing a busy new place filled with people—that is the kind of restaurant they would have come back to try.

If you have confidence in your establishment, your first priority is to get people through that door. They can't come back or tell others about you unless they show up in the first place.

Notes

1. Most business owners who say things like they want to “think outside the box” actually want to do the same things in their box, with better results. It takes courage to do something outside the norm. Most owners like the idea of courage, but few display it in business.

2. They gave me the lunch for free. I think I have to say this now due to the new FTC, FCC, NAFTA, and Geneva Convention laws.

3. A surefire way to know you're about to be offended is when someone says this. Also true with “Nothing personal” and “Don't take this the wrong way.”

4. I'm not that cocky to think they went out of business because they didn't use the idea. Just sayin'.

Chapter 5

Cold Calling

So you need to remove the trust gap and get people to try you. Now, how exactly are you going to do that? Good question. Almost 10 years ago I was sitting in a friend's office talking about typical guy stuff,1 when his phone rang. He picked it up, listened for a few seconds, and began to berate the caller on the other end. My favorite line was, “Don't you have anything better to do than to try to sell me your crap?” After he slammed down the phone, we agreed on how big a pain it was when people would cold-call us, interrupting our day. We finished our chat, and then he excused himself with the line, “I gotta go, Scott, I have to make my calls for the day.”

I just stared at him with one eyebrow up.

“Chris, you just raked that guy over the coals because he cold-called you, and now you're doing it yourself?”

“No, no, Scott, I'm calling these leads to introduce them to a product they need!”

I could already feel the migraine coming on.

And this is where the idea of UnMarketing all began. I had the realization that most companies are guilty of hypocritical marketing. Why do we market to people the way we hate to be marketed to? As business owners or employees, we make sure to hire gatekeepers who don't let pesky salespeople get through, and then we make quotas on how many calls our own representatives have to make.

According to the 2009 Economic Report of the President, 72 percent of Americans signed up for the National Do Not Call List. Two hundred twenty million2 people collectively said “Stop it!” Yet companies try to get around these loopholes so they can still interrupt our day by trying to pitch their wares.

People still teach courses on how to cold-call better. That's like finding a better way to punch people in the face. People won't like it, but darn it, you can do it better! You hear phrases like, “Every no leads you closer to the next yes!”3 I know people who become physically ill at the thought of making “their calls.” You don't have to do this. If you hate doing something, you will never do it well. In this book we talk about alternatives to cold-calling that are more effective and based on engaging with your market at every point of contact. There is nothing engaging about a cold call.

Notes

1. Nothing of any importance to the world.

2. I assume that the people who didn't sign up don't know that they can or are very, very lonely.

3. I literally had a physical reaction typing that line. I may vomit if I type it again. You've been warned.

Chapter 6

Aiming Your Company at the Bottom of the Barrel

I remember that 25 years ago I loved leafing through three big books: Encyclopaedia Britannica, the Big Book of Amazing Facts, and the Yellow Pages. Maybe it was my lack of friends in third grade or avoidance of people commenting on my bulbous head, or just a general interest in things that made me want to go through them. I would sit there for hours.

Fast-forward to the present day. The encyclopedia has been replaced by Wikipedia, the big book is now called the Internet, and the Yellow Pages are called Google. Yet many businesses and phone directory sales reps continue to use these big hunks of paper and try to justify it. I've had this debate with many people about businesses using tools like the Yellow Pages. Most people say it is a great doorstop, booster seat, or a thing to beat people with when they don't pay up on a gambling debt. But let's look at the case that most people say justifies using them, “They work in some markets. People still use them. Like old folks, shut-ins, and people who are still locked into AOL contracts.”

So, let's roll with that—people who still potentially use them. I have a few issues with this way of thinking.

You are aiming at the bottom of the barrel. (the hierarchy of buying). As you can see when you look at the hierarchy, even people who use the Yellow Pages on occasion will only go to them if they don't already have a service provider, they don't know anybody who could perform the service, they don't know anyone who knows anyone, and they have never even heard of anyone in the field. So no relationships, no word of mouth, nothing. And even if someone got to that point, you would still have to get noticed.

Paper spam. E-mail spam works on the premise that if you blast it out to a million people, a fraction of a fraction may be in the market for the product and a fraction of that may even click. Phone directories work on this same premise. Per year, 1.6 billion pounds of paper are used to produce the 500 million U.S. directories that go in the post. You may be in the market for one of the 2,000 categories of businesses that are listed. It's paper spam at its finest! You didn't opt in, the majority of people don't use it, many do not even take it out of the plastic; instead it ends up in landfill, might get recycled, or thrown at random phone company trucks that drop them off. Sadly, I don't see the books going opt-in, because like most things in the print industry, advertisers are charged based on bloated circulation numbers. And I estimate the number of people who would actually ask for it is 14, give or take 12.1

Price/competition sensitivity. The lower down on the hierarchy of buying you are, the most you are up against bargain shoppers and competition. The thing that I have heard the most from former advertisers was that even when they got calls from their ad, it was usually people looking for the lowest price. This is because you have not built any clout or trust with the potential customers, and you instantly make yourself a commodity. Or even worse, people call who are trying to sell you something, because what better way to sell somebody who advertises in the Yellow Pages than with a cold call.2 It also becomes a competition of who can have the most “AAAAAA's” in their legal name just to rank as first in their section, or sales reps telling you that you need to buy a bigger ad than your competitor that is right beside you. It fascinates me that businesses pay good money to be listed next to all their local competition.

Lack of updates. Because ads come out from a provider once a year, as soon as your ad is printed, it becomes stale. No testing on which ad converted to leads is better unless you plan on doing it on a year-to-year basis. That would mean to do a proper test using three different ads it would take you years to get any comparable data. It's like walking from Los Angeles to New York to see how your product is doing.

A dying market, literally. Through my totally nonscientific opinion, I am going to guess that the amount of people who use a phone book to look for a service provider goes up with the age demographic. Even senior citizens are ditching them to go online, however. According to PEW Internet and American Life Project, 45 percent of senior citizens over the age of 70 are online, and even 20 percent of those over 76 are surfing the interweb tubes. The average life expectancy is around 80, so I am not sure whom you are aiming for. Those over 80? Go get ’em! Just make sure you buy the big ads with the large fonts.

I understand that there is still a lot of money to be made by businesses that aim for the bottom, when people have exhausted every other resource. But even those people are using Google at that point.

The Better Bottom of the Barrel

Considering that Google owns or controls the entire world, I should probably touch on them, but they may be listening, or may even already know what I am about to type.3 The comparison between the Yellow Pages and Google is so far off that I regret putting them together in the survey. The theory still holds true, which is that you only go searching for something if you don’t know the answer already. If I already have a lawyer, I don't go and search Google for another one. But the tools that Google offers for advertisers from click-through tracking to conversion rates to keyword statistics have changed the world of advertising and cannot be compared to the Yellow Pages. So if you must do some kind of advertising, I suggest learning the ins and outs of Google AdWords.4 Facebook ads have also come on the scene. Same rules apply, with great targeting and demographics.5

The flip side to using AdWords is placing them on your site to make some money, which is called Google AdSense. It is a simple enough concept: Your site has content and the ads are matched to the content, and when someone clicks on an ad, you get paid from a few cents to a few dollars depending on the topic. This is fine for websites that are purely informational and where there is no person or company attached to it that is trying to position itself as an authority in a marketplace. However, you need to think twice about placing these words on your site or blog. For example, a copywriter friend of mine decided to place AdWords on her site, which is also where potential clients come to learn about her and to hire her. I asked her why she had the AdWords on the site, and she mentioned that if it made her a little extra money, then what was the harm? I replied that there are multiple things that are hurting her (or you, if you have AdWords on your site).

One concern is that you are sending people away from your site. People leave sites prematurely enough as it is, so you do not need to show them a way out. Is it really worth 6 cents to send someone away from your site? A potential client who is potentially worth hundreds of dollars to you? You can't even do the “open a new window” trick when they click, which would open the site from the ad in another window, leaving your site open. This violates the Google AdWords terms of service.

Another issue is that ads can show competing products, which is good for the competitor and bad for you. Not to mention that you are lending your credibility to whatever that ad is; because the ad is on your site, it is almost an endorsement. The ads are blended so well that they almost look like they are a part of your site. This makes it look pretty but can play with the customer's perception.

If you are aiming for the bottom of the hierarchy of buying, then Google AdWords is a great tool, but I would rather aim higher.

Notes

1. If you actually want to opt out, in Canada go to: Delivery.ypg.com/delivery and in the United States: YellowPagesGoesGreen.org

2. Insert maniacal laughing here with an Alanis Morrisette Ironic soundtrack.

3. Excuse me while I go get my tinfoil hat.

4. If you are looking for some good sites with tips about using Google Adwords, I suggest you Google the term adwords.

5. I found a lawn-care company through Facebook ads, and then they never showed up for the estimate. Ta-da!

Chapter 7

Pull and Stay

After the cold-calling episode, the other event that pushed me over the edge into the UnMarketing world was an event called Art by the Lake in my hometown. Artists gather down by our shoreline and set up in tents, displaying their paintings, sculptures, and photographs. It's well attended and looks like a great success, but I noticed a problem.

The problem was not with the attendees. They were great—enjoying themselves walking into each artist's tent, admiring the work, making comments, and giving compliments. The artists, unfortunately, were not nearly as engaging. Most were sitting in lawn chairs, halfheartedly thanking people for their kindness, but you could just tell they were secretly saying to themselves, “If you like it, why don't you buy it?!?”

The ratio of lookers to buyers was at least 100 to 1. The artists were doing the old-school method of sales, which I like to call “push-and-pray marketing.” Push something out there and pray people buy it. People are there to look at all these great art pieces; they were even saying to the artists that they might be interested in buying from them eventually. The most I saw any of the artists do was to hand them a card and say “Let me know!” and then, nothing. With that, the crowd of potential customers would move on to the next tent.

What were the artists hoping these people were going to do? Go home, realize they had a perfect spot in their living room for one of their paintings or sculptures, and try to remember who the artist was? Here every vendor had a prime opportunity for engagement. Crowds of people were raising their hands expressing interest in the artists’ products, but they were just being allowed to walk away.

Let's take the artists' situation and use the pull-and-stay method instead. You pull customer information and stay in front of them. Let's imagine that you are one of the artists at Art in the Park. Someone comes into your tent and mentions how wonderful the work is, especially your landscape photography. Instead of just saying thanks, you could say, “I appreciate it. I regularly take landscapes, and it's amazing how well they're received. I know it's tough to decide on art, especially when there are so many great artists here today. I have an exclusive preview e-mail I send out to people when I take new shots. I could also send you some shots of what is here today. Would you like to sign up? No charge.” Now you control the contact. After potential customers visit 50 other booths this day at the show, they will remember that you are the only one who stood out after the event is long over. Now you can start to build the relationship.

Take it another step. That night, after taking the visitors’ e-mail addresses, write to them to say thank you for coming by the booth. Send them a few shots and ask what they thought about the event. Start a conversation. Engage with them, get to know your marketplace. You'll be amazed at the responses you receive.

We talk much more about how to pull and stay potential customers at shows like this when we talk about trade shows later on. The same methods can also be applied to retail. Remember, marketing is not one department of your business; it is every point of engagement, including sales. The mistake made by too many businesspeople is that if shoppers do not want to buy immediately, they just let them walk away when they should be UnMarketing and pulling in these potential customers.

Chapter 8

Reasons Why Companies Don't Use Social Media

No matter how many times I sing the praises of social media, no matter how many case studies I present, company reps always give me an excuse of why they can't jump in. They say they have no time, there is no ROI (return on investment), they have no control, or there is no geographic boundary if they are local.

If you say you have no time to listen and to talk with people in your marketplace, then you are saying that you have no time for your customers. You need to make time to be in that conversation. If you believe business is built on relationships, then what could possibly be more important?

Return on investment (ROI) is one of the lamest excuses that I hear all the time. Most old-school salespeople could never calculate their efforts in ROI in the first place. I ask them what their ROI is on the networking event that they drove to last week or the conference that they just attended to see their current customers. It is more ROR (return on relationships) and, truthfully, that is really hard to calculate.

A classic move is to want to control the message. Company reps are used to having to go through multiple layers and approvals before being released to the public via a news chain. The funny thing is that they never had control even before social media. It is just that now people have a voice that can be heard.

Local businesspeople say that social media is fine for someone like me who has borderless clientele but no good for them because they only serve a limited geographic area. As you see in the next few sections, social media can actually be better for local-based businesses than for anyone else.

Chapter 9

Social Media (Social Currency as Well)

The problem with the term social media is that whenever people see the word “media” they automatically think “push.” Media has been classically linked as a way to push your message out through a variety of methods such as television, newspapers, radio, and online.

However, social media isn't media at all—it is simply a conversation with two or more people. It's an action. Not a site. Social media isn't Twitter. Or Facebook. It isn't the new website flavor of the week. It's the ability to have conversations online with others, whether it is your market, customers, colleagues, or anyone who happens to come across your conversation.