Looking to the Light

Networking: What is it Good For?

Some people fight to hold on to the ideal that success is found by what you know and do and not by who you know. I can understand. I'm a proud individual often unwilling to admit that my successes have come most commonly from the opportunities or experiences I've had because of who I know. Over the last year I've found success from partners I work with, people I met through Linkedin, and contacts I've made from both of those.

Then I think about how much people I'm close to have impacted my decisions and realize that again my success has been impacted by knowing smart people who give me great advice. People like my father, my brother, Ben Peterson, Ryan Sanders and a whole handful of others. So networking, what is it good for? Absolutely everything!!!

Freelance Worker for Hire

I've been working on a website for some freelance work I'm going to be doing. If you have a chance check it out and let me know what you like and what you don't like. Also, if you were looking to hire someone to do marketing stuff for you what would you want the site to show/discuss?

The site is: The Marketing Agency

Success - One's Biggest Downfall

Macaulay Culkin, Baja Men (Who Let the Dogs Out?), Jonathan Abrams, etc. To me these are examples of people who have found one success and have held so strongly to their one success that they have failed to be successful. Did we really need 3 Home Alone's? Perhaps Macaulay Culkin doing Home Alone and hanging out with Michael Jackson led to his inability to be cast in bigger and better roles that would have been able to push Culkin's career to unfathomable heights.

The corollary, Michael Jordan, Donald Trump, Michael Jackson (despite his weirdness). These are prime examples of people who were/are constantly find successes and people I would describe as grossly successful.

What differentiates these two groups? The successful people are consumed with being the best and brightest while the unsuccessful people were so struck to have a success that they failed to reach the next level. Any thoughts on how we keep from getting star-struck and become successful amidst our successes? A friend of mine is a great example to me of this.

Key Performance Indicators

I recently did a training to discuss key performance indicators or KPI's.

• Quantifiable measurements that are agreed upon
• Reflect the critical success factors of the company
• Not goals but reflection of goals

This was a helpful training and gave us a chance to talk some about being direct response advertisers rather than brand marketers. With KPI's it is very difficult to set a KPI for branding because branding is unmeasurable and rarely a key measurement for the success of a company. However, Branding will happen as a result of our efforts as we focus on key performance indicators.

Branding vs. Direct Marketing

Branding
A traditional advertising method used to create an acquired response from a target audience based on cumulative impressions and positive reinforcement. These ads are not purchase for the sole purpose of generating a click or visitor. They are geared towards increased product or company name awareness and lifelong customers.

Direct Marketing
A direct communication to a customer or business that is designed to generate a response in the form of an order, a request for further information, or a visit to a store or other place of business. (Also called Direct Response Advertising)

I've been spending a lot of time thinking about the idea of branding versus direct marketing. Both of them have their value and their time. When is that though? In my mind branding is to be done to benefit your direct marketing efforts. It places your company and products in the forefront of a buyers mind when they go to make a purchase of your product. It then becomes essential to get in front of the right people at the right time so that when they are in front of your product they are driven to make the desired action you are hoping for. To brand effectively requires difficult campaign planning, development and management.

At this point direct marketing, specifically advertising, is then placed in front of the user that helps to drive an action. Direct marketing is more, to put this simply, direct. It is way easier to measure a direct marketing campaigns effectiveness especially online.

When a company decides to brand it needs to be very blatant in it's attempts and should have some value associated with it and should not be an excuse for failed direct marketing attempts.