Web.Search.Social. The Marketing Magazine For Smart Businesses
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It’s a marketing cliche. Maybe someone has even said it to you (we’ve known customers with whom we’ve disagreed that remind us of it). But is it true? Should you really conduct business as if the customer is always right? Maybe a better mantra would be, “The customer should always be treated respectfully.” That’s absolutely true. But let’s be honest. The customer definitely is not always right. Here’s why it matters that you don’t pretend otherwise.
This is an unusual post for me and comes as the result of a happy surprise. Turns out two of my online friends and faithful blog readers have nominated me for the “Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award”. The first thing I wondered was, “Does that come with chocolate?” And the second thing I did was thank them profusely. (Guess I should’ve done that in reverse, huh?) It’s pretty simple – share a little something about myself then pass the award to someone else. While you’re there, how about sharing something about YOU and passing along the link to your blog?
If you’re familiar with the Sabotaging Success series, you know we’ve tackled some serious things that can derail us. I’ve gotten a lot of comments from people who have said, “Been there, done that!” and it made me realize that it’s pretty much impossible to stop people from falling flat on their faces. We all do it! So the question came up: then how do we cope? Which brings us to this post. Since we’re inevitably going to do something bad, wrong, ill-informed or head-smackingly stupid, we need to be equipped to deal with those things when they happen. If we let our failures get the best of us, we won’t learn and we won’t move our businesses forward. So don’t cave. Cope. Here’s my story, and the lessons that can help you cope with yours.
In honor of Mother’s Day and mothers everywhere I wanted to do something a little bit fun that’s also a tribute to all those unappreciated lessons moms have to teach. My mother raised six of us – me plus five brothers – and somehow came out the other side still sane (though sometimes she may beg to differ). Here are some eternal momisms and the takeaways that can help us be successful in business – and in life.
As a creative director in radio for about 12 years, I constantly railed against bad automotive advertising. As a marketing and advertising professional, I found it embarrassing. As a consumer, I found it insulting. As a regular guy, I found it annoying. One of my all-time favorite advertising quotes comes from Hugh MacLeod, who once said, “If you talked to people the way advertising talked to people, they’d punch you in the face.” But this ear poison has taught me some valuable lessons about marketing content and strategy, and motivated me to do better. Here are five of those lessons.
I have an appreciation – and even perhaps an affection – for some of the most obnoxious clients I’ve ever met. We’ve all had these kinds of clients, and rather than bang our heads against walls or wallow in self-pity and misery, I want you to take a completely different perspective with me and learn what they have to teach, in their obnoxious, difficult and demanding ways, about life, business, marketing and, well, how to survive in a “people” world.
Welcome to 2012 and Web.Search.Social, the online marketing magazine for YOU… smart businesses everywhere. Web.Search.Social is a resource for businesses everywhere who want a real, honest, no-nonsense look into the world of online marketing and who are tired of being bamboozled by the “get it cheap/get it fast/get it easy” crowd that pitches snake oil marketing tricks.
Most people (budget allowing) will pay whatever is on that price tag for a cup of coffee, a doormat, a dinner plate, a phone or a bottle of perfume. But the same people who will cough up four bucks for a cup of coffee or a hundred for a sweater will balk at the idea of paying me to write, manage, consult or otherwise engage in a brain-powered activity.
This week Ralph and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary. We enjoy engaging in a little bit of “where are we now”, a “lessons learned” sort of thing, a “can you believe we DID that?” walk down memory lane. Why am I telling you this? Because lessons are lessons and whether you learn them through wedding planning or some other way, chances are you can apply them to other areas of your life.
We’re celebrating our 12th year as Rahvalor and looking forward to a new start. Since we took a hiatus from our blog to rethink our business goals, we thought this would be the perfect time to reflect on where we’ve been, how we got here and of course, where we’re going on our journey to help small businesses find their market niche and succeed.
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