It’s time for Thirsty Thursday! Thirsty Thursday is the award-winning piece of content from Hasseman Marketing where we take a mystery drink out of a piece of branded drinkware! It’s funny. It’s irreverent. And we will show you some really cool merch as well! This week we feature the Silipint. And in case that did not bring you enough intrigue, we have guest taster Brent Mason joining the show from Howard Hanna. Watch the latest episode below!
Why Silipint?
Silipint® drinkware is made with patented, BPA-free, 100% safe food grade-tested silicone. Derived from sand, silicone manufacturing preserves less abundant natural resources. It’s also incredibly durable! Unbreakable Silipint® drinkware is made to last. The platinum-cured silicone won’t crack, chip, dent, fade, or scratch.
Each Thirsty Thursday, we feature a cool piece of branded drinkware. To learn more about the Silipint… head to our shop here.
Hasseman Marketing is your one-stop marketing shop. We work hard to “Deliver #MarketingJoy to you. If you want to make sure you never miss an update, now is a great time to become a VIP. Sign up to be “on the list” here.
Welcome to the Hasseman Marketing featured Product of the Week! Our goal each week is to show you a piece of branded merch that we love…and give you 3 reasons to love it too! This week we feature a branded drinkware item that has high quality and a high perceived value.
Let’s talk about the Highland! Watch this short video below!
Here are the 3 reasons we love the Highland
Packaging: When you have a product with great packaging it makes it feel like it’s worth even more. It’s more of a gift!
Quality: This is a really nice drinkware piece (we have even featured it on Thirsty Thursday). It will keep beverages cold for days and hot for hours!
3 Lids: This might seem strange, but it allows you (and your customers) to use the product the way they like. I usually don’t like larger bottles, but I use this all of the time…and I think it’s because I can choose which lid works for me.
Hasseman Marketing is your one-stop marketing shop. We work hard to “Deliver #MarketingJoy to you. If you want to make sure you never miss an update, now is a great time to become a VIP. Sign up to be “on the list” here.
If you are a marketer or an entrepreneur, you likely have more than a few challenges. But one of them is most likely, where to spend your time and resources. There is finite time and money, and you want to make sure you are doing the thing that will bring you the most return. Mike Michaelowicz turned me onto this idea in his book “Fix This Next.” Mike created a “Business Priority Pyramid” so that entrepreneurs can decide what is the right thing for them to be working on each day. I found this to be a powerful tool in order to make sure my efforts are going in the right direction.
But I find this to be a challenge for marketers too! There are so many marketing options to spend your time and resources on, it can be tough to know what to work on next. In addition, it seems like every day, a shiny new marketing tool comes out. As marketing professionals, we want to stay on top of the latest trends. But you don’t want to spend all of your time distracted by the newest toy…and lose out on the foundation.
That is why we created our HMC Marketing Pyramid
The concept is simple. We have created our HMC Marketing Pyramid as a worksheet for marketers. We have created levels so that you know where you are on your marketing journey. It also helps you prioritize what you need to work on next (or budget to work on soon). As you go through the pyramid, you want to check each box where you feel you are strong (or at least comfortable) where you are. After you go through the whole checklist, go to the lowest part of the pyramid where there is an unchecked box. That is where you need to start! You need to have a strong foundation if you want a pyramid that is going to last.
Rookie Level
If you love sports metaphors, you are going to dig this. If not, think of this as the foundation of your marketing plan. You might be starting a new venture, or you want to get back to basics. You start at the Rookie Level. At that level, you want to make sure you are happy with your logo, basic branding, website, and more. If you leave something un-checked here, no problem. It just shows you that it’s time to work on that to move your marketing efforts to the next level.
Starter Level
And speaking of the next level, now you are a starter! At this level, you have mastered the basics and you want to begin to be more intentional and more consistent. This is when you “up your game” on communication and letting your best customers know you love your fans.
All-Star Level
All-stars take it to the next level, and that is exactly what this ranking means. Once you have completed all of the tasks at Rooke and Starter, you can take bigger swings. Sure you have social media pages, but do you have a plan? Have you made the transition from rented media to owned media? I talk about what that means here. This is what happens at the All-Star level.
Hall of Fame
Marketers and entrepreneurs at the Hall of Fame level are truly building brands. They have custom events to showcase their services and to connect with their tribe. Many also feature custom apparel that their customers actually pay to wear! Now THAT is a brand!
So where do you land on the HMC Marketing Pyramid? This is a jumping-off tool to help you plan what should be next for marketing your organization. Let us know if you want to meet with one of our Hasseman Marketing reps to go over the pyramid…and plan the next steps!
“The person that gives the value first has the leverage.” Gary Vaynerchuk
We are living in a “Give First” economy. That is my belief. I believe that the person, salesperson, entrepreneur or company that has the strength to provide value first, will win…long term. The Give First economy does NOT mean the good old boys network. It does not mean that just because we play golf together you have to buy from me. It’s about value. It’s about providing more than you are paid for. It’s about doing business “the right way.” Push vs. Pull: Why? Because times have changed! Since the beginning of marketing and advertising, we have lived in a “push” world. The company that pushed their message out the strongest and the loudest won. But with the onset of the internet (and social media) that has changed. Consumers have the ability to tune us out. They have the ability to shut us off. The power in the relationship has changed. So we need to pull customers in. We need to “give first.”
“Life is an echo. What you put out you get back. What you give you get.” Zig Ziglar
But here is the great news, when it comes to Promotional Products: this plays right into what our Promo is all about. This medium is built on the idea that we provide something of value first, so that we might be able to earn your business. “Okay,” you might be thinking, “I believe you. I need to give first. But what does that mean?” Great question. We are going to dig into some real things you can start to do today in order to impact your business. But be forewarned, these are going to seem like common sense. They will seem simple. But here is a very important secret: simple is not the same as easy.
“The greatest distance in the world is the distance between “I know” and “I do.”
So let’s dig into the steps for building a business that succeeds in the Give First Economy.
Give Joy: That’s right. Give out Joy. The world needs more of it. Studies will tell you that 89% of everything you see in the world is negative. With social media and the culture today, my guess is that number should be higher. We are a culture that is drowning in the negative. That’s the bad news. But the good news is, it’s pretty simple to stand out. Just be positive. Give out Joy. By being the person that spreads good into the world, you have the ability to not only stand out…but to be the kind of person someone WANTS to be around. You will be different. And in the mind of the customer, better is not better…different is better. Pro-Tip: Do an audit of your personal social media pages. Look at the last 10 posts. If 4 or more can be “perceived” as negative, then you are likely seen as negative. Be on the lookout for ways to push out joy!
Give Praise and Thanks: Here’s a scary statistic: 69% of customers that leave you will do so because of perceived indifference. They will leave because they don’t think you care. Yikes. But you can do something about that. Take the time to send real thank you notes. Stop by when you are not selling something just to say thanks. Be grateful for your clients business. You be pleasantly surprised by the response. Pro-Tip: The best organizations and sales professionals send thank you cards. Most don’t. If you are not, start there. If you have mastered that, gather your client’s birthdays. Send them a birthday card…they will not be expecting that!
Give More Than They Pay For: Seth Godin says that if you want to be remarkable, you need do something worth remarking about! This is a simple, but totally under-used way to make people appreciate and remember you. Simply provide more value than your customer is expecting. When you do this, consistently, your customers will find you remarkable. Pro-Tip: The next time you have a large order, add a little “something extra” to it. Maybe this becomes a future sale…maybe not. But you will have provided more than they paid for…and that WILL pay off.
Give Content: This is a very important piece of the Give First success plan. That is why I post a lot about content creation. Social media and content (creation and curation) are great tools to use to provide value up front to customers and prospects. What does this look like? It might be as simple as sharing an article that would be helpful to your client base. It might be a fun video about your staff. It might be pictures of your team having fun. There are tons of ways that content can help you provide your customers and prospects value. What it is not is selling first. Too many entrepreneurs, sales professionals and organizations try and use social media to “push” their message out. You have likely seen them. They simply say “buy from me, buy from me, buy from me” and never provide value.
Pro-Tip: Think of ways to tell your story and provide value through content. Are you a writer? Do you like to take pictures? Are you a talker? Think about what you most enjoy…and get ready to provide value there. The fact is, there are tons of ways to win in the Give First Economy.
But what about the most obvious? Give Promo Premiums: Are you using promo to help to grow your business? We have been preaching that you need to provide value to your customers and prospects first…and this is the perfect tool. So before you go any further, its time to think about how you will use promo to grow your business. Pro-Tip: Create a quarterly appreciation plan for your Top 20% of customers. This will give you an excuse to reach out and provide value every 3 months. It shows them you appreciate their business and (when done right) provides a long term advertising piece right where they are.
One of the things I am adamant about, is that in today’s society, everyone is a media company. (Yes, Gary Vaynerchuk says this too).
If you are a car dealer, you are a media company that also sells cars. If you sell insurance, you are a media company, that also sells insurance. You get the idea. I believe you need to think like a media company. You need to create content that people want to consume. That act of acting like a media company will create an audience, and then you will be able to sell them something (or convince them of something). You will have gained their trust. I believe that.
But despite that belief, Hasseman Marketing has not consistently been acting like it. Don’t get me wrong. We create content. My hope is we even create content that our customers and peers like. But we have lacked the type of plan and consistency that I would like. So starting June 1st, my goal is to fix that. It’s time to up my game. And in this short blog post I wanted to outline my plan for what will be coming up the next 30 to 60 days. I would love feedback, thoughts and suggestions if you have them!
1. The DMJ Podcast is coming back: I started doing the DMJ Podcast at the beginning of this year on Mondays. My goal was to test it out and see if people enjoyed it. After the first 12 weeks of the year, I took a break. The feedback was good…so I am bringing this back on Mondays. It will be here on this blog and wherever you get your podcasts.
2. Delivering Marketing Joy: The staple of our content creation is our interview show Delivering Marketing Joy! That will keep coming and will be hosted at PromoCorner.com as it has been. If you have suggestions on guests, email us here!
3. Brand-ecdotes: Again, we played with this series and we want to bring it back. Here is a link to one of these. We welcome Promo Pros to weigh in on what they love about Promo. Let us know if you want to take part!
4. unScripted Podcast: This award winning podcast with Bill Petrie will keep coming at ya every Friday. It’s hard to believe we have done 100 of these! Don’t worry…more to come here.
5. New Blog Posts: This is the new curveball into the mix. Get ready for me to create a new blog post every business day! Some will be short. Some will be a bit longer. But the goal is to provide value to our customers, prospects and peers all of the time. And we think this will be a way for us to do that! So please check back. Read them. Comment. Give feedback. And by all means, help keep me accountable! Why would we do all of this? Because we believe we are a media company. Get ready for us to start acting like it.
