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Reputation is everything in business. I can’t stress that enough. Your business may be changing. Your business may have outgrown its current circle of gravity.
You may not even have a business anymore.
I’ve just stumbled across a free manifesto by Chris Guillebeau, called 279 Days to Overnight Success. In it he details how he completely changed his business and became a pro-blogger. Chris runs The Art of Nonconformity Blog which oddly enough he made successful in just 279 days.
Now you may not be interesting in becoming a pro-blogger, let’s face it if you know anything about blogging you’ll already realise it’s a difficult, nay nearly impossible arena to generate a living from but his manifesto shares some brilliant advice and thoughts around web marketing and traffic generation.
Get your copy here.
Ringo Starr has educated me today, sadly though not in a positive way as yesterday he posted a video on his website informing his fans in quite a rude and sometimes amusing way of his intent not to sign anything sent to him ever again. The cut-off date for this being 20th October 2008. You can see this video at the bottom of this post.
The big question is does Ringo Starr not need his fans and supporters anymore?
Now the skeptical among us may say that we hadn’t heard anything from Ringo for quite some time and this is some kind of adverse publicity stunt to drive traffic to his website/store. This could be true and certainly his site has probably had more hits today than it has ever had, however a week on and the stats could be back to normal.
Maybe he’s just sick of it all but the mixed message he gives in the video seems to suggest otherwise; in one breath he’s refusing to sign anything and the next he’s offering peace and love.
So if it is indeed adverse publicity what will be the effects long term? Lets think of this in business terms.
A business should have lots of loyal customers, that way it has a regular sustained income that carries on regardless of any peaks and troughs. If one customer to take offense at something the impact on business can be dramatic as customers talk to each other. If a whole load of customers take offense the impact can be catastrophic. Gravity is increased momentarily as people are drawn towards you through morbid curiosity but your reputation is irreparably shattered.
Going back to Ringo what this means is that if he ever wants his fans to return he will need to do something to reinvigorate their interest. As 25% of a 50% deceased band that’s a pretty tall order.
After visiting the old Portobello Market at the weekend and suffering the crowds of tourists I was feeling a little drained and tired when suddenly I heard some sweet sixties melodies getting closer and closer. Then trundling up the road came this:
As it states on the side of the van he really was a singing handyman, multitasking too as he was singing into a microphone and driving at the same time. Even better was the fact that he was in tune and sounded pretty good really. If singing wasn’t enough his van also blew bubbles!
Talk about getting yourself noticed and increasing your reputation. With so many other handymen/women out there how on earth do you get yourself noticed? Is singing the answer? Would you hire this guy just because he drive by and sung at you? I would probably give him a go.
The point is he got me thinking, as a business what do we do differently to attract new customers? Currently we are struggling to get our heads around just this point exactly with Google Ads – the most popular keywords being “training and development”, which is exactly what we do. If we wanted our ad to be visible though with that keyword it would cost us £3.20 a click which is far too much money.
Maybe we should rebrand ourselves as the only singing training and development company?
What does your business do differently that can really get you noticed?
Image from campbell rowley website
On Saturday I was giving a guest lecture to an MA course. One of my fellow guest lecturers was Grant Campbell from a design agency called Campbell Rowley.
As a designer his presentation looked great, every slide was based upon a striking image and was impeccably laid out. This is how it should be of course as a demonstration of his care and his ability. There were also 8 things, 8 top tips that he had that we could all learn from and use starting tomorrow. These are a mixture of what he said but also what I observed.
One: Don’t put your name on page 1. He didn’t. He had it on page 3. Page 1 was about the big picture of what he was going to discuss with some ideas to excite the audience, a teaser. Page 2 was why this was relevant. what’s in it for the audience. Page 3 was then his name and his personal brand. I like this approach. You take note of his name because by page 3 he has given you a reason to do so.
Two: Success and personal brand. Some people find it hard to integrate the two. How do you give an air of financial rigor while still talking with passion. Grant said his name, his experience and then… “and as a company we have no debt and what that means is that we seek out projects that we care about and that we can really make a difference with”. That statement is so simple yet so powerful. It indicates a philosophy of working together, an energy, a commitment to excellent work and also business stability and a safe pair of hands.
Three: Do actually seek out projects that you care about. Sometimes you just have to know when to walk away. The clearest brief in the world counts for nothing if the brief is for something poor. Don’t let your reputation suffer because a client wants something you disagree with. You will get blamed for it eventually. Everyone will point at you and say this doesn’t work and it’s your fault. Walk away for the sake of the long term.
Four: When a brief / commission / opportunity comes in – get it out again. Share it around quickly and ask for ideas quickly from EVERYONE in the team. Don’t keep it to yourself.
Five: Except for one person. Keep them out of the loop. They are your person to practice on later – the cynical viewer. What Grant calls ‘Phil the Foreigner’
Six: Take an ‘ummmm’ moment during the design of your pitch. What he means by that is a quiet moment where you stop frantically ‘copying and pasting’ anything in just to get the damn thing done and actually think about what you are doing.
Seven: Use a McGuffin structure. A McGuffin is an idea from scriptwriting, most famously used by Hitchcock. It is a plot device that runs through the film and binds it together – for instance a microfilm that someone is after. The film isn’t about the microfilm. The film is about intrigue, themes of identity, a comment on the cold war – but the microfilm (the mcguffin) binds it together. Have a mcguffin for your pitch.
Eight: Generally in design stop thinking about what the computer can do and start thinking about what you want to do and then how the computer may help you do it.
What would your last pitch have been like with these 8 tips.
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