Intrepid LLC

I had the pleasure of co-hosting a TweetUp last night at FuegoMundo, the PunkRock Champagne Holiday TweetUp. It was a thrill to host along with Stephanie A. Lloyd and Laurie Ruettimann. I thought you would enjoy seeing a quick video of the anarchy!

Let me just tell you from experience: putting on an event like this is a lot of work. But connecting people, and seeing things happen when people meet, is priceless. Make it an intrepid goal in 2010 to be a better connector of people. It will grow your business and enrich your life…

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Todd + Stone

Yesterday, Stone Payton and myself had the pleasure to be guests on Dream Job Radio! The show, hosted by Stephanie A. Lloyd, explores HR issues and workplace issues. It features job candidates and business leaders…

On the show, we talk about our dream job, and how we help others build their dream job. We spent time talking about all the exciting ventures going on at the High Velocity organization. Topics included social media, blogging, building community, marathon running, among many others…

LISTEN TO THE SHOW HERE!

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Today we filmed Round 10 of He Said, She Said. What a momentous occasion! We made it to 10. Not that we didn’t think we would…but still, kind of cool!

It was Stephanie’s turn to ask the question, and she asked, “What do you think is the the greatest advantage of promoting an event via social media?” Watch the videos below to discover our thoughts, and feel free to add to the conversation via the comments section!

Join us for the PunkRock Champagne Holiday Social + TweetUp on December 16th! Hope to see you at FuegoMundo Wood-Fire Grill!

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from Coca-Cola Art Gallery on flickr

I spent a good part of Saturday with one of my clients, FuegoMundo, assisting with their booth at a local Latin street festival. It was a lot of fun. And it was good to get out into the trenches to do some real hand-to-hand marketing.

Before the festival started, all of the exhibitors (Latin restaurant merchants) were invited to hear from Jose Espinoza, Director of Multi-Cultural Commercialization + Customer Programming for Coca-Cola North America. He did a presentation on how to strategize around the Latinization of American cuisine. It was an interesting discussion.

During his talk, he made reference to something that got me thinking. Speaking about Coke, he said that they don’t really have to work on “building” the brand we know as Coke. Being one of the most recognizable brands on the planet, people either love the brand – or they do not. But he said the most important thing they need to do is MAINTAIN the brand. They have to be sure that the experience is always good.

Coke doesn’t want you to have a flat soda at a restaurant. They don’t want a product you buy at a store to NOT be what you expect. If your experience with a Coke product is sub par – even one time – it begins to erode their brand. In addition, they have to worry that a poor Coke experience at YOUR restaurant negatively impacts your restaurant’s brand too.

Now, save for a few other companies on the planet, most of us do not have the brand affinity – or the brand awareness of Coke. But we do have brands. And that brand is EVERYTHING to us – and impacts our ability to go to market.

But just like Coke has to work to maintain it’s brand, so do we. We have to be certain our customers continue to get the experience they expect. And whether you like it or not, this is a 24/7 undertaking. Here are a few things you can do to do some marketing maintenance:

Get feedback from customers – Always be seeking feedback from your customers. Did the experience live up to their expectations? Find out direct from the source how you can improve and perfect! And then APPLY it where appropriate!

Question everything – How is this decision I am about to make going to impact my customer’s experience? Will it make it better? Don’t assume anything. Always challenge yourself and your organization! And empower everyone in the organization to question things…

Test, test, test – Test everything. And test it again. Don’t launch a new idea, a new service, a new website, etc., until you know it will deliver as intended and expected.

Demand the best – Always demand the best from the people in your organization. If people who work in your organization aren’t giving their best effort, remove them. Find someone committed to the principles your organization – and your brand – is built on.

Take pride – If you aren’t taking pride in everything you do, then you will ultimately fail. Or at best be mediocre. And this even applies to the person cleaning your shop at the end of the day. If the cleaning crew takes pride in what they do, you have a fighting chance!

So, there are a few ways to maintain your brand. What do you think? And what are other things to think about when doing maintenance marketing? Just keep in mind that all of us, not just Coke, have to maintain our brand!

Be Intrepid.

This post was picked up by The Customer Collective!

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Last night, my colleague Stephanie A. Lloyd and I discussed the merits of multi-dimensional blogging. Stephanie’s question was inspired by our attendance the night before at Atlanta Bloggers…

Round 6 was filmed live at the inaugural Atlanta Red Shoe Project TweetUp at FuegoMundo South American Wood-Fire Grill.

Here is the Round 6 post direct from the He Said She Said blog. And here is Stephanie’s version of Round 6…

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Our last TweetUp at FuegoMundo...

Be An Intrepid Marketer – Recommendation No. 32

For me, it’s all about being of service. Of service to your clients, your prospects, your community, and yes, even your competition.

Helping people, serving people, giving back – is ALL good marketing.

One of the best ways to serve people is to CONNECT them. Connect people who can help each other. Connect someone to a vendor who can perform a valuable service. Connect people to expand their horizons, to expand their reach, to expand their influence.

Connecting people not only helps them, but it is also good for you. The people you are connecting will remember you were responsible. And that alone is worth it. But, it is likely they will return the favor someday…

If you become known as someone who connects people, you will go far. One of the things I do on a regular basis is host a local TweetUp, which is a live gathering of people who interact on Twitter. It’s a great way to meet people, to put faces to the names of those you have been twittering with, and engage in some valuable business and personal networking.

I am co-hosting my next TweetUp with Taryn Pisaneschi. This is our little way to help make the world a little smaller, and to help build a little community for the people we serve and care about. It is VERY rewarding to see people make a connection that benefits both of them – and to feel a little responsible for making that connection happen! To join us at this upcoming event, please REGISTER HERE!

What are YOU doing to be a better connector?

Be Intrepid.

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Be An Intrepid Marketer – Recommendation No. 30

Marketing is tough business these days. It is increasingly difficult to stand out. You need to find any edge you can get. Video is just one little simple technique you can use to stand out in today’s marketplace. But fair warning – this will change – and soon video will be EVERYWHERE. Take advantage of it while you can…

Here are two sample videos for Intrepid client FuegoMundo South American Wood-Fire Grill that we will use to promote on our blog and in social media…

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CLICK HERE to listen to my most recent webinar, The Social Media Feeding Frenzy. A nice simple intro into how social media can be an important part of your business marketing. Learn some key assumptions, some basic concepts to building and growing community, a few ideas on how to use social media to market your business, and what tools you might consider exploring for your business.

And lastly, learn the amazingly simple secret to social media success…

Enjoy!

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Be An Intrepid Marketer – Recommendation No. 28

If you are not currently seeking real, honest feedback from your customers, you are missing out. Big time!

There is no better way to learn ways to improve the customer experience – than to ask the customer what worked, what didn’t, and what can be improved. And the amazing thing is? It is so easy to do. And yet so many don’t do it.

Why? Are they afraid to receive negative feedback? If so, then it’s time to quit.

As readers of this blog know, I do the marketing for FuegoMundo Wood-Fire Grill. We just opened our doors last week. So far, we are thrilled with the traffic and the early reviews!

But let me tell you something, there are two clear reasons why we are getting strong early reviews:

1. The FuegoMundo team worked hard to begin building a place where we could deliver a good customer experience.

2. We asked a lot of people for feedback. Before we opened.

How did this happen? We had SIX separate events where we invited people to the restaurant, allowed them to live the experience, and then when done, gave them a detailed form to collect feedback.

And man did we get some, and it improved the way we do things. What resulted from the feedback from about 250 people was menu changes, staff procedure changes, messaging changes, and strategic marketing changes.

It made us better.

[Do you know how easy it was to get people to participate? Just get on Twitter and Facebook and invite them to participate. Easy - if you define "easy" as working for months to build a community online using social media...]

And now that we are open, we are still aggressively seeking feedback. The artwork seen in this blog post is the very customer feedback card that rests on each table in the restaurant. You can’t imagine how many cards were filled out just in the first three days…

We want to hear from you. We want you to tell us what we can do better. Sure, we like hearing good stuff, which helps us know we are on the right track. But seriously, we need to know the bad stuff. That’s the only way we can improve. That’s the only way we can, together with our community, create something that people will want to talk about and share.

And that’s how we will grow. That’s how we will succeed. That’s how we will build momentum to start a second location.

And it all starts with asking your customer for a little feedback.

Be Intrepid.

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Be An Intrepid Marketer – Recommendation No. 27

Some say that in the age of social media, direct response marketing is dead or dying. While I agree that DRM is changing, let me proclaim loudly:

They are wrong. In fact, if done right, DRM can still be a very important piece to your overall marketing strategy.

An Intrepid client just sent out the first of a four-piece direct mail campaign. We are launching a new restaurant, and trying to build awareness of the new joint in surrounding neighborhoods.

To have a successful program, you need THREE things: a compelling message, an easy call-to-action, and a good targeted mailing list. That’s it!

That said, you have to do a lot of work to be sure you achieve all three things. And even then, there are no guarantees. On the FuegoMundo piece (shown above) we simply let people know a new place was coming soon, and that to learn more about it and to receive discounts and promotions – all they had to do was sign-up to join our e-newsletter. Simple.

The response exceeded our expectations! Now, there was nothing exceptional or frankly, unique, about our mailer. But it was simple – and the call to action was clear and easy. And our mailing list was carefully put together. It was sent to precisely who we believe our target audience to be.

I will admit, it was gratifying to see this response. Not because it proved to me that this restaurant concept has a great chance of succeeding. But more importantly, that direct response can still work – if you practice the fundamentals.

What about you? What does direct mail have to offer you for you to take some sort of action?

Be Intrepid.

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