Muir Beach-This Is Where I Play Hooky

My "To Do' list is overwhelming, but when a friend called yesterday about noon suggesting coffee, I was out the door in about 30 minutes. It was one of those exquisite days in northern California with the sun shining warmly, just enough breeze to keep it a little cool, and wild flowers in bloom all over the place.

We actually did start with coffee at The Depot in Mill Valley which anchors a town square that is a gathering place for the community, went for a walk through a neighborhood of gorgeous homes, chatted with a couple celebrating their 27th anniversary, and headed back to the car to feed the meter. Instead, we went for a drive up and out of Mill Valley toward Muir Beach through that breathtaking scenery that is in all those car commercials.

It was low tide so we could actually walk to the end of the beach that is usually only accessible over huge, sharp boulders. Today the rocks usually submerged revealed their colonies of mussels of all sizes and the little crabs skittered across the sand threatening Buddy, the cocker spaniel who's afraid of water since he fell in a pond as a puppy 8 years ago. Walking back we engaged in conversation with a couple of guys, one pushing the other in his wheelchair. One friend taking another on a trip to see San Francisco, the Pacific, the redwoods, and all the other beautiful sights in the short time he has left.

Serendipity being what it is when the Law of Attraction is a conscious part of each day, after some high-spirited and good natured kibbitzing, it turned out that the able-bodied friend is a long-time technology executive who is very interested in what we are doing here with Commercial Open Source technology and actually had a business card in his wallet!

So, the moral of the story, Kiddies, is playing hooky is a good thing. It restores your soul. Opens your eyes. Eases the knots in your shoulders. And, sometimes produces breakthrough and opportunities you'd never have gotten, sitting at your desk!

More later!

The Gap - No, Not The Store

"Quality in a product or service is not what the supplier puts in. It is what the customer gets out and is willing to pay for." -- Peter Drucker

How many times have you heard or said, "It's not about the features. It's all about the benefits." This is especially true of CRM, Customer Relationship Mnaagement, but in a different way than you might think.

Too often, CRM is defined as a piece of technology for managing the customer experience. At least, that's what a lot of people say it is, including all those programmer guys who sold it to other programmer/IT guys in the big corporations a few years ago. They said it would change the way the big corporations did business and the IT guys who brought it to their big corporations would be hailed as heroes. Millions of dollars! Months, years of implementation. All for naught! Nobody used it or knw how to use it or cared about using it.

In the end, CRM is an acronym for simply a piece of technology that helps organize and manage data...uh, don't run away...the information you've gatheredd about your customers, prospects, leads.

But, the real Customer Relationship Management is that person-to-person interaction that creates a unique connection or bond between individuals that can flourish into larger relationships between companies.

For me, in the end, the quality that customers get and that keeps them loyal customers is all about the relationship. Not the product/s or service/s that are sold and delivered. As we are all too well aware, very similar products and services are offered by multiple vendors. But, the Customer Relationship, properly Managed, is unique and that's what they are really paying for.

More later!

56 Characters or Less – Effective Subject Lines

If you don't already know about it, I write for Dr. Ralph Wilson's Web Marketing Today newsletter on email marketing. This is the first of two articles on Subject lines. The second was just published in this week's newsletter, but will also appear here in a week or so.

56 Characters or Less – Effective Subject Lines

What is the first thing you scan in your email inbox? For me, it’s the Subject line. If it catches my attention, I then check to see who sent it.

Your relationship with your readers/customers starts with the subject line.

You can have Subject lines as lengthy as you choose, but you have to assume that the most people see is 56 spaces…total. That is what you have to work with to make an impression strong enough to get your readers to the next stage, clicking and opening the email you’ve toiled over.

Support your Subject Line and create instant recognition with the same From: information every time. That does not mean an anonymous person in your company, but a real and recognizable persona. That does not mean that every reply has to go to the CEO! That’s what redirected emails are for.

Now that many email clients block images by default, your Subject line is the most important sentence in your entire campaign.

Consider a descriptive name for your regular newsletter and then, expand on that if you feel it necessary or desirable, e.g. TrendBlog-New Research Results on Testing Subject Lines (55 spaces), TrendBlog-I’m Sorry You Feel That Way… (40 spaces), TrendBlog-Top 5 Strategies to Build Subscribership (50 spaces).

Take a cue from the headlines; just don’t make that newspaper Variety! Variety, the entertainment industry newspaper built a reputation with its headlines like “Sticks Hix Nix Pix.” Creative is good as long as it is clear, concise, and doesn’t confuse your readers. Make it easy for people to understand, archive to find later.

Savvy email marketers are three times more likely to test subject lines. Certainly, the larger your list, the more valid Subject line testing can be. However, you can always enlist a group of trusted people to give you their opinions on which Subject line they feel is most effective. A twist on this is used by Outside magazine whose email newsletter includes a link to vote for your choice of magazine cover for the upcoming issue. Not only does it engage the online audience, but it also drives them to the newsstand and print magazine to see which cover design won.

Many “authorities” such as myself (ahem!) recommend that you personalize Subject lines with the recipient’s names. Call me old-fashioned, but personally I do not like this over-familiar ploy from strangers. And, unless your list maintenance is absolutely mistake-proof, I don’t think it’s worth the potential faux pas.

And, always – Be honest. Just yesterday I got an email from a major publication. The From: line was the “Magazine”.com. The Subject line was “Your friend wants you to receive Pearls of Wisdom,” so I took the time to open the email. It was an offer from one of their advertisers. The last time I checked I do not include major pharmaceutical companies as personal friends. Consider the fallout….

Stay tuned for Part Two-what motivates people to click through. What works, what doesn’t?

What if Customers WERE the Service?

What if Customers WERE the Service? really caught my attention. I've had similar experiences in all kinds of retail locations, including at the Apple Genius Bar in Corte Madera, CA.

Something I was discussing recently with a friend was whether it made sense for Starbucks to add small conference rooms for 6-12 people that could be reserved by those many people who already use Starbucks everywhere as their offices. It could be on a montly subscription basis that gets you 1-2 hours per month use of the conference room, reserved in advance, etc.

Since it seems we are moving closer and closer to self-service customer service where random other customers are often the source of the information you're seeking, it seems to make a lot of sense for retail establishments to enable this.

What do you think? Please post your comment or email me!